Infinite Bloom
by imafangirlforever
Summary: Bloody guild wars, missions, and the mysterious pasts of their guildmates. This is what the mages of Infinite Bloom, a guild known throughout Fiore about 100 years before the main storyline, had to face in a world where legal guilds and the council were just beginning to form. But these mages would persevere and make their teams the best in Fiore, danger or not. ACCEPTING VILLAINS
1. Character Chart

**A/N: Scroll to the bottom for more information if looking for submission form. I do not own Fairy Tail and the same goes for the rest of the story.**

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Mars Willow**

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Bi

Mage-Class: A Class

Other Occupations (rather than mage): Waiter

Personality: A nice and sympathetic person who can be rash in a fight. He is usually light-hearted and loves having a good time. He can be very naive when wanting to protect his friends.

Magic: Arc of the Heavens

Team: 1

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Rae Kamachi**

Age: 19

Gender: Straight

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: A-Class

Other Occupations: bar-owner

Personality: a manipulative woman who loves it when she has power, hiding her inner intelligence with a shallow flirty mask-usually very suave and charming but can be kind to teammates

Magic: Puppet Magic

Team: 1

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Alucard Date**

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: S-Class

Personality: A calm yet self-confident person who doesn't boast about his powers, feeling that feats in combat are enough to prove himself. He always likes a true challenge, although he usually doesn't show much emotions and is very blunt.

Magic: Blade Master

Team: 1

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Ames Versaille**

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Gay

Mage-Class: B-Class

Other Occupations: Healer

Personality: Ames is shy, being not very confident of himself, being a diligent person who is sort of clumsy at times. He can be easily discouraged, and often bonds with people very easily because of his emphatetic attitude.

Magic: Support Magic (defensive techniques, enchantments)

Team: 1

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Chase Machor**

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: A

Other Occupations: none

Personality: A very easygoing guy who doesn't hold a grudge. He's a joker that hardly takes anything seriously, although he has an intelligent side that is usually ignored thanks to his immatureness.

Magic: Mach Maker Magic

Team: 1

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Kei, Minami**

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: A-Class

Other Occupations: musician

Personality: a very curious and generally happy person who never likes to see people unhappy, tending to be very persuasive and directs conversations to his liking. He can be impulsive whenever he wants to be

Magic: Illusion Magic

Team: 2

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Isaac North**

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: A-Class

Other Occupations (rather than mage): General wanderer

Personality: He only cares about himself, and is often cold and serious. He values skill and training, but is often haunted by the past.

Magic: Sword Magic: Legend of the Empty Blade

Team: 2

* * *

 **Name: Grace "Savage" Arc**

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: B-Class

Other Occupations (rather than mage): none

Personality: Reckless, protective, determined, sneaky

Magic: Animal Magic

Team: 2

* * *

 **Name: Ava Ferrier**

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

Mage-Class: B-class

Other Occupations: none

Personality: Creepy and a practical trickster, being social in an annoying way of always pestering people. She enjoys playing mind games with them or else spooking them out, and can get under their skins fairly easily.

Magic: Foxfire Magic

Team: 2

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Uriah 'Zero' Grace**

Age: 19

Gender: male

Sexual Orientation: straight

Mage-Class: S-class

Other Occupations (rather than mage): helps retrieve things for people

Personality: Private yet arrogant, with a humongous ego. He is kind and helps people but usually plays it off as the person owing him later. He can be overprotective.

Magic: Astronomy Magic

Team: 2

* * *

 **Name: Michael Cross**

Age:20

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage Class: A-Class

Other Occupations: cartoonist/reporter

Personality: A timid and soft-spoken person who constantly puts other people in front of himself. His personality can switch to being a serious, self-confident person who believes in justice in certain situations.

Magic: Takeover: Hero Soul

Team: 3

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Raiden Rand**

Age: 17

Gender: male

Sexual Orientation: straight (heterosexual)

Mage-Class: S-class

Other Occupations (rather than mage): Detective

Personality: always keeps his cool, pays a lot of attention to detail, and is a perfectionist. He gives advice to his friends and has a strong sense of justice.

Magic: Lightning/Lightning Dragon Slayer

Team: 3

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Irisviel "Iris" Grace**

Age: 17

Gender: female

Sexual Orientation: straight

Mage-Class: A-class

Other Occupations: waitress

Personality: Fun and kind, but also easily provoked. She likes to believe the best in people, is very loyal and noble, and has a good intuition.

Magic: Astronomy Magic

Team: 3

* * *

 **Name: Riley Harrows**

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Orientation: Hetero

Class: B-class

Other Occupations: none

Personality: Bubbly and cheerful, but a bit ditzy and weird. She enjoys socializing, but often creeps people out with her affinity for vicious monsters and dead things (archeology). She gets into near death experiences all the time, but always laughs it off and pretends to be oblivious

Magic:Cleric Magic

Team: 3

* * *

 **Name (first, last): Jakkura**

Age: ...21

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: S-Class

Other Occupations: explosive expert, bomb maker

Personality: A sadistic and cruel person who enjoys his opponents' misery. He feels pride in being a part of their guild, though, because he knows it is strong.

Magic: Bomb Curse

Team: 4

* * *

 **Name: Marcus Stryker**

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: A-Class

Other Occupations: Engineer

Personality: A brilliant mage who intends on becoming the leader of a world-famous team of mages who would do whatever he could to protect his friends and help others.

Magic: Lightning Magic

Team: 4

* * *

 **Name: Victoria Sophran "The Biomancer"**

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage Class: B-class

Other Occupations: Scientist, biomancer, engineer

Personality: Victoria is independent and intelligent. Her head is usually in the clouds, filled with ideas. She has a wandering mind and has trouble focusing on anything and is very forgetful. She is, however, very intelligent and isn't very social.

Magic: Biomancy

Team: 4

* * *

 **Name: Gizma Galvax**

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: straight

Occupation (other than mage): Blacksmith

Personality: She is generally goofy and klutzy which can be seen in peaceful settings, laughing and telling jokes but can get serious when necessary.

Magic: Forge Magic

Team: 4

* * *

 **Name: May Fego**

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Mage-Class: B-class

Occupation (other than mage): N/A

Personality: May is brave, impulsive, and competitive. She is very merciful and has a lot of sympathy for people who are too weak to help themselves.

Magic: Shaman Magic

Team: 3

* * *

 **A/N: Currently, I'm looking for villains. I encourage those who have just stumbled upon this story to try to read it before submitting, as the story probably has more information than whatever I can summarize.**

 **This story takes place 100 years prestoryline.** **The main plot at the moment is the First Trade War, which is actually legit as in Fairy Tail Zero there was a page with a timeline of Mavis's period and it said the Second Trade War took place July x686. Fiore is being invaded by an alliance of three countries: Bosco, Minstrel, and Ca-Elum, all of which can be seen on the Earthland map.**

 **The above OCs are part of a guild called Infinite Bloom. It's one of the few legal guilds formed as the Magic Council has barely established itself.**

 **For the villains, they can be in one of two organizations. The Watchers is an underground group led by leaders from other countries that currently is created havoc all around Fiore, establishing things like drug rings of tyrannical influence on the outer cities. They're the ones manipulating the second group. The secound group the OCs can be in is the Dark Guild named the Fallen Angels. (It's a horribly cliche name, just for plot humor, although this mainly contains mages who have fallen from grace if you know what I mean.)**

The villain OC form will be on my profile page so you can copy and paste it. Try to PM it to me, but I'd understand if it's by a review if you don't have an account.

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. Meetings at the Bar

**A/N: I do not own Fairy Tail, the same goes for the rest of the chapters.**

* * *

The Midnight's Delight was Malba City's most well-known bar. It was known for many things, whether it be the superior entertainment that was provided every night, the or the fact that it was literally a few blocks away from the town's local guild: Infinite Bloom.

Infinite Bloom was a legitimate legal guild that was recognized by the newly formed Magic Council, and that alone was impressive enough to display its power. The Magic Council had formed only three years prior to the present day when Litmus R. Fiore, the current king of Fiore, came to the throne. The Council had barely enough time to manage and organize themselves as they were, and only the best and most powerful guilds were important enough for the Council to pass a motion to make a guild legal.

Thus, most of the guilds that were littered around Fiore weren't legal, and even those that were didn't abide by the newly formed laws the Council had passed. Guild wars were frequent: shows of power and strength in which one side would be completely crushed while the other assumed the position of the territory's guild.

Malba City happened to house Infinite Bloom, and the guild's fame usually warded off any Dark or Unofficial Guilds looking to establish a base in the city, which was near the Mikage Forest. Many tourists flocked to the town just for the opportunity to see mages, as many other towns around Fiore _didn't_ have any mages at all. A prime example was Hargeon Town, which was renown for its sea trade. Many of the visitors at the bar hailed specifically from the sea port.

Rae was serving drinks to her bar's patrons across the stone tabletop, her emerald green hair tied back into a practical ponytail, before out of the corner of her eye reflected in an antique mirror she saw a young man enter the bar and sit down on one of the brass stools. Setting down a maroon colored cocktail quickly, the liquid sloshing back and forth from the sudden motion, she paced herself quickly as she moved to serve him.

The man noticed her, and a bright grin came over his face as he leaned forward, his black hair slightly covering his face as he swept it back. "Yo, how're you doing?"

"Chase," Rae acknowledged as her golden eyes darted back and forth, wondering if he was trying to stalk Alucard again (for some reason the blunt man was always a victim of Chase's many pranks), but she couldn't see the raven-haired man anywhere.

The only mages that she could see in the bar at the moment was Iris, a long-time member of the guild who served as a waitress sometimes; Mars, a modest person who often worked at the bar; and Jakkura, a mysterious mage who acted quite sadistic and loved booze (he was a frequent patron at the bar).

"What are you doing here?" Rae asked, sucking in a deep breath as she ran through her mind the possible list of options of why the trickster might have come to her bar. If he wasn't stalking Alucard or planning a prank in the guild hall, the boy was usually seen tinkering with things, but a bar was hardly the right place to do those sort of things.

Usually whenever Chase came to the bar he'd come for the singular purpose to annoy one of his guildmates (and Rae sincerely hoped that she wasn't his lucky target for the day). She knew him well enough thanks to being one of the unfortunate few to be on Chase's team, and Rae hoped Chase knew well enough that if there was one thing that she actually took seriously it was her business.

Chase pouted, complaining, "Can't a guildmate come visit another guildmate without being suspected of anything?"

"If it was anyone but you I'd be inclined to believe so." Rae shrugged, making sure that her flirty facade didn't fade as she kept on her 'business smile' on her face as she felt some of the customers staring at them.

"How cruel," Chase put a hand against his chest as if mortally wounded.

His teammate promptly ignored him. Suddenly, a smile curled up on Rae's face as the green haired girl turned around, sensing another presence behind her. "Ames!" She acknowledged more happily. "How are you?" Faintly behind her she could hear a certain joker's protest at being ignored, and at that the girl smiled even further at Ames.

"Good." The shy boy fiddled with his fingers as the healer shuffled with his feet. Finally, he looked up, a small gentle smile coming over his face as he looked at his friend. "How about you?"

"Same as usual," Rae replied, her eyes softening at her kinder friend. "Manipulating, chilling, bossing around Mars."

Faintly behind her, Rae could hear Mars's protest at the statement. He'd probably sulk in the corner later and play with his flute, so she wasn't too worried. It brought in the customers.

"Chase, shouldn't you be getting ready for tomorrow?" Rae referred to their upcoming mission, rolling her weary shoulders as she sighed. If she could get away from work right now, the golden-eyed woman would, but that was impossible with the rush of business they got just around the evening.

"Nah, I'm good. Got plenty of sleep yesterday thanks to _someone_ ," Chase said, putting emphasis on the last word as he remembered Alucard literally knocking him out when Chase had tried to pull a prank on him the other day. The cheeky grin on Chase's face showed that he wasn't really mad about it, although he rolled his eyes. "The bar's more crowded than usual," Chase observed, and his guildmate nodded.

"It is. Luckily I got Iris to help out as a bar-waitress for a little." Rae gestured towards Iris, who was at the moment balancing a tray of mugs filled with amber ale, her bright blue eyes darting around as she nimbly dodged bumping into a table.

"Slave-driver." Chase chortled as the green haired girl whacked him on the head good naturedly as she rolled her eyes, sighing mockingly as if to silently ask 'what are we going to do with this guy?'. "You think our team will go on a mission anytime soon?" He addressed this to Ames, who had been staying silent for the majority of the time.

"Possibly," Ames answered, his emerald green eyes looking up thoughtfully until his attention was caught by Iris, who had accidentally dropped one of the mugs. He hurried over to the pink haired girl, asking hurriedly, "Are you alright?"

"Ah? Yeah." Iris affirmed, her blue eyes moving to glare at the patron who had been bullying and teasing one of the other customers. She had gotten a little angry and in her haste to tell the man to knock it off, she accidentally dropped one of the mugs.

Iris picked up the dropped mug which had luckily been made out of wood (Rae had bought them specifically because she knew situations like this would come up) carefully, placed it back on the tray, and took out a rag and began to wipe the wet floor, Ames helping her while biting his lip.

"Are you sure you're fine, Iris?"

The girl nodded, a smile playing at her lips. Ames was always very caring about his comrades, up to the point where some of their other members were worried about letting him on missions for the fear that he might put others before himself too much. She usually had a good intuition to tell if she could trust people or not, and Ames definitely was someone she could trust.

Those worries about Ames had been washed away when they found out that Chase and Rae were on his team. Despite being some of the most shallow people in the guild, everyone knew that both could be trusted when it came down to it.

Chase, for example, despite being in the guild for only two years, was an A-Class mage who would often be seen with a wrench or something in hand. Sure, he was a jokester, but they trusted him. Rae had been in the guild for a long time: 7 years, and only Marcus and Kei out of their current generation had been there longer, and did whatever she could to help out the guild.

"I'm fine, thanks." Iris bobbed her head, her pink hair falling on her shoulders as she pulled at the collar of the maroon colored button up shirt Rae had forced her to wear while serving. She preferred her white and gold kimono better, along with the rest of her usual outfit. Iris was already beginning to feel chilly from the lack of her red scarf usually wound around her neck.

"Okay then. If you need any help, I'm sure Rae can allow me to work at the bar too," Ames offered as he ran a hurried hand through his golden hair.

"Seriously, it's okay." Iris waved her hand dismissively, grinning a little. "Besides, did you see the look on that guy's face when I threw that mug at him? That was so fun!"

"Iris…" Ames warned, inwardly sighing at his companion. Honestly, Iris was a very kind person: she always saw the best in everyone and stuck up for him when he was too shy and felt discouraged, but for some reason bullies ticked her off immensely and at those times the pink haired girl would get angry and Ames would need to calm her down. He supposed that kindness was why he was friends with her, but at these times he was somewhat exasperated with his outgoing friend.

"I know, I know. I'll apologize later." Iris huffed, crossing her arms.

Meanwhile, Chase and Rae were sitting back at the counter idly, watching the show as a rare sign of intelligence flashed through both of their eyes. They were both similar in a way, Chase supposed. Although he usually just joked around, his teammate hid her prowess by acting flirty instead.

They understood each other. Perhaps that was why he was put on a team with her, along with Ames and Alucard (a calm and somewhat scary person in Chase's opinion). They all suited each other, with Alucard and Chase's short-ranged magic and Ames and Rae's long-ranged magic. Not only that, but their personalities balanced the team out.

As soon as Chase thought that, Rae was called on by one of the customers who was sitting on one of the slick black leather couches to get another cup of beer, and she plastered on a bright fake smile on her face as she bowed, giggling girlishly as she called back to the man. "Coming right up, sir!"

After serving him and getting ready a few other cocktails for the waiters to serve, Rae slid back onto the seat next to him, humming a tune under her breath.

"What song is that?" Chase couldn't help but ask.

"A song Mars composed," Rae answered. "He played it for me the other day after some...convincing." She had paused before uttering the last word, as if she was searching for some other word to better replace what she was thinking of.

"I see." Mars, along with Kei, a fellow mage musician, often played at the bar for their patrons' entertainment thanks to Iris and Rae's insistence to hear their music. It wasn't rare for the other mages of Infinite Bloom to stop by when they heard that their fellow guildmates were performing, and thus they had a wide variety of customers enter the bar on those days.

"Aren't you going to watch your customers?" Chase asked bemusedly as he scratched his head, leaning back nonchalantly in his seat.

"Eh, I can spare some time to talk. I'm the boss. Being a boss you need to work harder, but there are some times when you can slack off too," Rae replied, her amber eyes glinting as she cupped her chin with her hands as she watched Iris bow to their customer somewhat reluctantly while Ames watched over her. To her left she could see Mars idly flirting with one of the customers, who handed him a tip before leaving.

Mars was a strange one, but then again they all were. He was also on Rae, Chase, and Ames's team, along with one other person. He was extremely loyal to his friends, but had also picked up some of their bad habits. Just like Rae and Chase, the man would often use his good looks to his advantage, and even though Ames would scold him about it his other two mischievous teammates would just give him an approving pat on the back.

"Such a slave driver," Chase repeated his earlier statement, a Cheshire's grin tugging at his face as he stood up, making his way to Jakkura while Rae returned to her job, not before she tossed a puzzle toy at her teammate to which the black haired man caught easily.

"Keep it," she called over her shoulder, waving nonchalantly as she grabbed several liquids and mixed them in a transparent glass (they had run out of wooden ones). "I know you'll appreciate the puzzle more than me."

"Thanks!" Chase called back, shoving the puzzle into his white pocket as he focused on taking slow, easygoing strides to Jakkura. As he closed in for the kill, he called out to his guildmate, knowing that the gloomy man would _not_ be the easiest to cheer up. But Chase knew that he would at least try his best to help his guildmate open up.

"Yo, Jakkura!" Chase said cheerfully to his guildmate as the rather scary man looked up from his barrel of booze to him and scowled as he recognized Chase's grinning face.

"...it's you."

"Woah, a non-monosyllabic answer! Is the world coming to an end?" Chase asked dramatically as he looked up at the ceiling woefully, tears springing to his eyes. He was bent down on one knee, almost as if he would propose to Jakkura (that thought made him shudder, so Chase pushed it away). An aura of sparkles and flowers surrounded him before the immatureness was blown away by a single word.

"Idiot." Jakkura deadpanned before gulping down some more booze, his one visible eye narrowing at the man as he fiddled with some explosives he had gotten from a store earlier.

"If you want I can try making some machine that can help you with that," Chase offered, his brown eye and red eye both dimming slightly at Jakkura's dismissal of the idea.

"No."

"Aw…" Chase looked thoughtful for a moment before brightening at the thought of a question. He had asked Jakkura several times but never had the man answered the same thing. "Why do you look so...um...strange?"

"...I was experimented by a witch as a child, obviously." Jakkura deadpanned as Chase beamed at the slightly longer answer. He always tried to cheer people up, so he was glad that it was (sort of?) working.

"Cool!"

"Can you leave?" Jakkura asked somewhat rudely, gesturing towards the entrance of the bar as Chase sighed, knowing when to push his luck and where his boundaries were as he nodded in assent and walked off dejectedly.

Meanwhile, the three workers had finally caught a break, and they sat down alongside Ames as they watched Chase get rejected without any emotion flickering through their faces.

"...it's a lost cause," Mars whispered.

Iris shook her head, eyes fierce. "I'm sure Chase can do it! Besides, I'm sure Jakkura's actually a kind person!"

Everyone else, even Ames, stared at her skeptically.

"...I just have a small feeling that we can at least count on him to watch our backs when it comes to it?" Iris added on hesitantly, fiddling with her pink hair nervously as she awaited her friends' responses.

There was a long silence for a moment before Ames, bless his kind soul, spoke up somewhat warily, his emerald green eyes filled with warmth and acceptance. "...okay, Iris. You seem to know best about these kinds of things."

"We trust you!" Mars added in as he gave her a smile.

"Thanks," Iris said, grinning warmly as Rae gave a nod of assent, everyone just basking in the moment of silent camaraderie.

The spell was finally broken by Chase, who came back to the group wincing and nursing his head where a lump was starting to form. Apparently Jakkura had thrown his mug of beer at Chase when the boy had tried returning to his guildmate again. "Yo, guys! What are you doing?"

"Why does it seem like everyone in our guild is weird?" Mars wondered as he saw Rae roll her golden eyes and cross her arms around her chest, muttering sardonically,

"I wonder."

* * *

Infinite Bloom, being a guild for 15 years and a legal guild for 10, was surprisingly well-organized despite the fact that they were right in the beginning of the era that historians were beginning to dub the Magical Revolution.

There were several teams formed by the guild master himself, Norbert L. Ketner for each generation. The teams were usually formed when about 10 to 15 mages aging around 16 to 22 had finally been gathered, and teams usually formed to complement each other.

These teams would go on to spend the rest of their career as a mage together. Of course, there were exceptions. Already just a few months after the formation of the three teams of their generation, a new mage named Alucard Date had joined Team Petal, or Team 1. He was a strange person, always with a blank face that no one could really tell what he was thinking.

Despite that, his team had welcomed him. Rae, Chase, Ames, and Mars had literally thrown a party for the stoic man at Chase's insistence, and although everyone was _sure_ Chase meant well, when the door to the party opened and a bucket of pink paint had fallen right on the surprise guest, Alucard was understandably _not_ a happy man.

Chase had apologized for pranking him (although he didn't say anything about not doing it again), but ever since then he had been doing whatever he could to break the man's pokerface.

That would not work. The only person who really could be considered Alucard's... _friend_ was probably Ames, being the kind person he was. Also, perhaps Michael might have wormed his way through Alucard's emotional barrier. Michael was one of Ames's closest friends who shared a similar personality with an additional quirk that Chase lovingly dubbed 'hero mode'.

At the present moment, Mars was trying not to laugh as he watched Chase position his fake blood on the ground as every now and then the black haired mage looked up towards the doors of the guild to make sure that Alucard hadn't arrived yet.

It was early in the morning, and their team was scheduled to meet to complete a mission that had been issued by some villagers about a monster in a forest. It almost felt like deja vu because Mars himself had been found that way two years ago. He had been living in a cave practicing his magic when in barged a team of mages.

At the time, Master Norbert didn't create the teams yet, so usually the mages paired up with whoever they wanted to. The people who had retrieved him were Rae, Kei, and Michael. They were the people who had stayed longest in the guild, and decided to make a small trio and try things out.

When they had barged into the cave and saw Mars playing a flute in the corner instead of the expected monster, their mouths had dropped. He would never forget the looks on their faces. Of course, Kei-being the easygoing person he was-was the first to recover and as a fellow musician who appreciated his music simply clamped his hand on Mars's shoulder and said solemnly, "We're keeping him."

Kei was never one to mince with his words, Mars thought idly about his fellow musician. Kei played the guitar, and was an Illusion Mage. At the moment he was gone on a mission issued by the Master along with another guild member.

They had brought Mars back to the guild and ever since then, Mars honestly felt like he was _happy_ with where he was. He had new friends, and a new family. They never really pried about his past (it seemed like almost all of them had some dark secrets they preferred not to tell) and only did what would make him comfortable.

"Chase," Mars said somewhat apprehensively, memories of ashes and fire flashing through his mind as he asked, "Are you sure this is going to be...okay?"  
"Of course." Chase snickered as he added his last finishing touches to the prank as he sat down at one of the guild's tables idly, crossing his arms and waiting for his teammate to enter. The guildhall was empty today. Most of the adult mage teams had headed out together on one great mission to one of the nearby countries and wouldn't be back for the next month or so.

Mars presumed that the other teams were sleeping, considering that Rae had insisted on waking up early to begin the mission. Most likely, the flirty girl was on her way to the nearby apartments where most of the mages at Infinite Bloom stayed to wake up Alucard. Ames hadn't arrived yet, but Mars was sure the boy was either buying sweets for the trip or reading a book in his home.

"Yo! We're here!" Rae called out cheerfully, winking at Mars and Chase as Ames and Alucard trailed behind her, both surprisingly (well, more like unsurprisingly in Ames's case) holding books although Alucard quickly stashed his away in a suitcase he probably packed for the mission. Mars suddenly felt the urge to grab his own book from out of his satchel but shoved that desire back as he sat silently, watching the scene play on.

The green haired woman paused as she saw the fake blood on the ground, her smile seemingly frozen on her face before she turned to Alucard, whose face was deadly pale as if he had seen something ghastly. She pursed her lips, twitching slightly as if she wasn't sure to flick Chase in the forehead for playing such a prank or giggle along with it.

"...Chase, did you do this?" Ames questioned, looking less taken aback by his comrades as he turned to the prankster of the team.

"Ahahaha...how'd you guess?" Chase rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he shrank back at his teammates' glares.

"...you shouldn't do that," Alucard stated in a monotonous tone as he lingered slightly away from the group, standing back a few steps as his eyes flickered to Mars before focusing on Chase again.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" Chase waved his hands around innocently as if to deny the accusation. "I won't do it again. Happy?"

"You're an idiot." Rae pinched her nose as she rolled her eyes.

"Psh, I know you love me." Chase dismissed as the rest of his teammates stared at him apathetically. Mars didn't know what they'd do without Chase lighting up the atmosphere. Ames was sometimes too shy to speak up, Rae usually dropped her flirty/happy demeanor around them and instead assumed the voice of reason, Alucard was already as antisocial as one could get, and Mars simply sometimes felt like just playing his flute in the corner.

"So," Mars said with a playful grin as he nudged Chase, trying to cheer everyone up. "What are we going to do now?"

"We've been hired to hunt down a Dark Guild's location. They've been on the run for a while now and have started several guild wars with other guilds, killing a lot of innocent citizens who were just caught up in the battles." Ames answered, his eyes saddening at the thought of so many casualties.

They usually left it up to him to pick the missions because they knew the rest of them would pick extremely hard missions outside of their level for either the purpose of training or personal reasons.

Both Alucard and Mars looked towards the blonde haired boy with a small glint of interest as Rae nodded resolutely. "Okay then, sounds simple enough."

"We are _just_ going to track them down, though," Ames warned, ignoring several protests about it being boring or too easy. "I know you guys are all for jumping into battle headfirst but we need to think things out. This is an entire dark guild that has been defeating countless guilds. Tracking them down will be hard enough, for they've moved all around Fiore's Eastern side."

"Roger that!" Chase saluted.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello everyone! Just a quick note to thank everyone for submitting their OCs, it was really hard to pick the cast out of them but I hope that this will suffice. This is a sort of introductory chapter in which I tried to include as many OCs as possible at the same time setting a background on the time period. I really wanted to get this out as quick as possible to see if I'm getting the OCs right...**

 **I suppose it's a _little_ overwhelming, so I apologize for that, but I'm working right now on making each OC memorable. It's pretty funny because a lot of the OCs are actually quite similar yet have slight differences I'm trying to emphasize. As you can probably tell this chapter was sort of focused on Chase (and Team 1), and I'm planning on focusing chapters around different characters each time.**

 **If you feel like your OC is OOC (LOL that sounds strange), don't hesitate to tell me~ I want all the critiques possible so I can improve. And if you like any other OCs, don't hesitate to say that. It encourages me to know I'm making characters likable.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	3. Days of Waiting

**A/N: This is a second introductory chapter. The story will switch between two scenes for the moment: Team 1's mission and what's happening back at Malba City. I wasn't planning on updating this soon but I got really excited lol and wrote super fast.**

* * *

The bar was sort of lonely with Rae and Mars gone, Iris thought idly. The two were on the same team and thus, they were on a mission at the moment, leaving the pink haired girl in charge of the bar along with her guildmate, Kei, who was at the moment sleeping behind the counter.

Kei, being an Illusion Mage, was usually used by Rae to rip-off the customers. Of course, the manipulative woman never admitted to that despite Chase's and Iris's many accusations, instead smirking and shrugging her shoulders innocently. Usually she'd encourage her workers to tempt the more drunken patrons of the bar to come upstairs for a night for a 'low' price and ask Kei to create an illusion so the customers were satisfied while the employees could still work.

Weird woman. Iris snorted, but then again she couldn't really deny that she herself was completely normal. Almost all the mages in Infinite Bloom were somewhat strange, but Iris liked to believe the best of them. She was sure her employer had some redeeming traits as well.

The bell on the door rang, signalling a new patron had entered the bar. Business was usually pretty slow in the daytime, so Iris was completely free. She turned around, smiling brightly, welcoming the customer before she blinked and realized who it was.

"Oh, Michael! How are you?" She asked, and the fellow pink haired mage nodded.

"G-good, you?" he replied, sky blue eyes sweeping around the mainly empty bar. "Business's slow right now, huh."

"Yep! But I'm in charge of the bar for now, so I should stick around here. And I'm doing fine." She blinked, looking for the familiar two presences that was usually around the boy. "Where are Victoria and Gizma?"

Victoria and Gizma were two girls who both _loved_ inventing, and their inventions were their lives. Victoria was a very much _eccentric_ person who usually had her head in the clouds and nose stuffed in her blueprints. Her leather coat-which reached the bottom of the floor and was completely filled with patches, buckles, and belts exemplified how scatterbrained she could be sometimes. On the other hand, Gizma was a similar inventor who usually spoke in third person (to Iris's confusion) and usually was very goofy.

Both of these girls got along really well with three people: Michael, Ames, and Chase. They stuck around Chase mainly because of his Mach Make magic which enabled him to create any machine he wanted to. Gizma, whose magic could only create machines that were made in the past, often abused his magic for her research. But since Chase was out on a mission along with Ames and the rest of the team, the two girls should have stuck to Michael (who along with Ames was one of the only two people who were kind enough to listen to their ramblings).

Instead, however, the kind boy was completely alone. Michael took a seat on the leather sofa, the furniture that he had deemed the most comfortable the last time he had come to the bar. "Err...h-how are I?" He blushed as he realized what he said. "I-I mean how are _you?_ Sorry Iris!"

Iris blinked for a moment before nodding, a smile coming across her face. "It's fine."

The pink haired girl had first met the salmon-haired boy when their guild members were at a picnic. She had heard of Michael before but never really got the chance to interact with him back then. That obviously was different now, considering both were on the same team, and Iris was thankful for that because she easily emphasized with the boy. At the time of the picnic, Iris had spotted some mean children were picking on one sole little boy at the park. At the same time both Iris and Michael had strided over to the scene and demanded for them to stop. That was one of the rare times that she saw Michael act _strong_ (or, in Chase's terms, hero mode), but she had been lucky enough to witness the phenomenon several other times whenever their team was on a mission.

"Okay." The 20 year old seemed to calm down as Michael sighed, leaning back in his chair as he observed his teammate. Iris seemed to be doing well despite the fact that she was working under Rae (his guildmate was very...demanding at times), and if any she seemed to be more happy than usual.

"Want anything?" Iris motioned at the bar behind her, and Michael's baby blue eyes travelled through the bar making a cursory scan before nodding.

"Can I have some wine?" he asked, and Iris couldn't help but let the giggle escape from her lips. She never would have pinned Michael for a wine person, but then again she shouldn't have judged a book from its cover.

"Red or white?" she asked, eyeing the positions of each beverage.

"Red," he replied, blushing a little under her heavy gaze as Iris turned around and poked Kei, her coworker who had been sleeping behind the bar for the past time. Kei was always falling asleep in the strangest of places, and Iris was sort of glad that not many customers were at the bar because she doubted in her ability to serve everyone by herself.

"Kei, wake up."

The messy haired ginger shifted slightly before his head lifted up and weary emerald green eyes looked up at her. "What?"

"Can you get me the red wine on the top shelf? I can't reach." To demonstrate, the pink haired girl reached out at the shelf and narrowly missed knocking everything over. "See?"

"Sure. Just don't destroy the bar or Rae and Mars will kill us when they get back." He yawned, reaching up and easily grabbing the bottle thanks to his height. He turned around, handing it to Iris. "Here."

"Thanks." Iris beamed, keeping one hand carefully on the bottom of the bottle as she poured some into a crystal glass. She headed back to Michael, setting down the glass cautiously on the table before grinning triumphantly. "Try it, it's pretty good. I heard that Raiden brought it back from one of his trips. It's apparently from that country in the East...what's its name again?"

"Bosco?" Kei prompted from behind the counter, looking sleepy as Iris nodded energetically.

"Yep! Bosco," she repeated as she nudged Kei to keep him from falling asleep.

Michael took a sip of the maroon liquid, setting down the glass back on the table after and eyeing it thoughtfully. "It _is_ good. Is it expensive?"

"On the house for guild members except Jakkura," Kei commented idly. "Boss's orders."

"Rae always says that Jakkura would drive them bankrupt if they allowed him free drinks. He comes here nearly every day." Iris shrugged, pursing her lips slightly. "And technically I heard a rumor that Bosco uses their slave trade to produce the grapes that are used for their wine trade, so it actually came pretty cheap for Raiden since he bought it over there."

"...I see." Michael seemed oddly quiet for a moment and Iris knew it was because his sense of justice was reeling. Iris herself was feeling the same.

"Well, then," Kei changed the subject easily, "When will you two head off on a mission?"

Iris exchanged a glance with Michael. The two were teammates, along with a girl named Riley and a man named Raiden. Raiden was pretty close to Michael, considering both had a very strong sense of justice albeit Raiden was much more of a perfectionist than his timid friend. Not only that, but their other professions allowed them to meet a lot and they had assumed some kind of strange friendship in which Michael would ask questions about Raiden's detective work and Raiden would answer the young reporter. Riley, on the other hand, was extremely bubbly and cheerful (albeit a little strange with her obsession about dead things) and got along well with Iris.

Michael and Iris's teammates were at the moment out on a small adventure to the countryside because Riley had heard a rumor there was a very ancient fossil that was dug up recently. Raiden had been forced to follow her just in case she got herself in yet _another_ near-death situation because Iris was stuck at the bar, and Michael had chosen to stay to keep his teammate company. That decision was sort of surprising, for usually Michael and Raiden were always together because of their side jobs. Raiden's other job was working as a private detective, and usually Michael was the one to publicize his achievements since he was a reporter.

"Later once Mars and Rae's group get back I suppose." Iris replied, raising her eyebrows at Kei. "Can't you just watch the bar by yourself?"

"Rae doesn't trust that I won't start sleeping on the job," Kei said nonchalantly as he yawned, rubbing at his eyes as his said narcolepsy started to take over. Kei wasn't _actually_ narcoleptic, but he usually stayed up late at night to maintain illusions over the guildhall, which the Master tried to keep as hidden and secret as possible.

Despite Infinite Bloom being a legal guild, many dark guilds still targeted them whenever they found their guildhall. Guild wars over territory were often, but Master Ketner, who disliked his first name immensely and always asked to be referred by his surname, would always try to avoid those kinds of sticky situations if possible.

Kei was entrusted with the task of keeping their guild's location a secret by casting several layers of illusions to throw off their enemies. It wasn't too hard, considering one of the adult mages had some kind of Teleportation Magic and regularly moved the location of the guild hall throughout the Mikage Forest at night time when dark guilds were most active. That person would move the guild hall back in the morning, but even so the Teleportation Magic wasn't completely foolproof, which was why Kei's Illusion Magic was needed. Only those bearing the guild's guildmark could ever really find where the guildhall was unless directed by a guildmember.

"Well, I'd like to believe that you can be responsible when it comes down to it, everyone has a good side to them," Iris said stubbornly as she sat down on one of the stools. A rare flash of surprise showed on Kei's face for a second before the Illusion Mage nodded.

"Thanks."

"Eh? You're welcome." Iris's face turned a nice tint of pink for a moment that matched her hair as Kei raised his eyebrow at the reaction.

At that very moment, the door rang signalling another customer and Michael nudged Iris a little hesitantly. "Er...I-Iris? Someone's here." The pink haired girl blinked for a moment before nodding and standing up, moving to serve the patron.

"Thanks Michael!" She beamed, her fun persona coming back into play as she walked away. Both boys stared after her for a moment before turning back to each other.

"You know, I don't understand how you two can be so _nice_ …" Kei commented idly as he stared at Michael perplexedly, and the pink haired boy blinked. "You and Ames. And Iris, I guess."

"Y-you're nice too, Kei." Michael adjusted his glasses, a goofy smile on his face. "But thanks." He didn't stutter nearly as much as he did whenever he was around a female, and at those times Kei could actually find Michael as a close friend.

"Still, seems like you have a long way to go when it comes to certain social skills," Kei said, yawning slightly as he gestured to Iris's bustling form, a sly smile forming on his lips.

Michael turned a shade of pink similar to his hair. "Kei!"

The man shrugged, finally standing up from his position at the bar to serve some drinks to some of the customers that had come in. "You know you don't have to stay here to keep Iris company. I'll be here. Why don't you make sure that those idiots don't do something stupid?"  
By _those idiots_ , Kei was probably referring to Victoria and Gizma, who Michael guessed must be at the moment somewhere in the city running around either collecting more building materials or tinkering with things.

Michael bit his lip, but nodded his head in acceptance as he set down his now empty glass. "I will. Thanks, Kei."

"No problem," his friend said easily as Michael waved in goodbye to Iris, slightly blushing as he did, before he walked out of the bar.

* * *

Michael was walking on a stone paved pathway, a slight breeze making him have to readjust his glasses, when he heard a bright, loud voice call out to him. He turned around, expecting to see Iris telling him he forgot something at the bar but instead to his surprise he saw a different familiar figure.

"Michael!" Riley waved at him frantically as she quickened her pace and caught up to her teammate in mere seconds as she beamed at him. "Yo! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"H-hi Riley," Michael greeted amiably as out of the corner of his eye he saw Raiden, his other teammate, leisurely take his time as he caught up to the other two. "It's nice to see you again Raiden. How was your...adventure?"

"Oh, it was fantastic!" Riley threw her hands up in the air, her purple eyes practically sparkling as Raiden sighed as if to say 'here we go again'. "It turns out that the fossil was actually an Acanthopyge Trilobite that was native to this region of Fiore. The officials didn't let me touch it, but I got to get really close to it and look at everything! You and Iris should have come, Michael, it was awesome! Of course, Raiden here eventually had to drag me away when we started attracting a lot of unwanted attention-" she ranted.

"You were creeping out the officials," Raiden said patiently, although there was a hint of exasperation in his voice as if he had been telling her the same statement for a while. "And also you almost got yourself killed _again_ from a falling beam and you never noticed. The town was too dangerous for you."

"I would have been fine, spoilsport." Riley dismissed easily as the black haired man twitched at the easy dismission.

"I-I see." Michael had a little trouble keeping up with his teammate's rambling as he gestured back towards where the Midnight's Delight was. "Why don't we head to the bar to talk? Iris and Kei are in charge right now."

"Is Jakkura there?" Raiden asked, and Michael knew he questioned it because for some reason his teammate hated drunks. Jakkura, of course, was one of their best mages despite his sullen nature but even so Raiden was at best neutral with the man.

"No," Michael answered truthfully. "I think he headed off to the nearby town to buy some supplies for his latest bombs."

Raiden shrugged. "Even so, I think I'm going to head by the Office to see if they have a mystery for me instead. I haven't done a case for a while. Wanna come?" He directed his question to Riley, already knowing that the girl loved dead things to quite an extent.

Riley brightened for a moment before shrugging. "I promised Ava I'd hang out with her tonight. Tell me if there's a corpse, okay? Okay? We can meet up later." She was referring to Ava Ferrier, her best friend who was just as eccentric as Riley albeit in a more creepy and cynical way.

Michael mentally thanked the Master for not putting the two on the same team, despite their obvious teamwork. It would drive anyone insane.

"And I should probably go tell Iris you two are back." Michael added. "But tell me about the mystery later. I can write an article on it, you know, and for some reason your mysteries are always really popular."

Raiden sighed in defeat but didn't try to persuade them any farther. "Okay."

"Make sure to perfectly solve the case as usual and come back unscathed, alright?" Michael gave him a small smile, a little tint of pink rushing to his features as both Riley and Raiden gave him a look.

"This guy," Riley jabbed a thumb at Raiden, "...is such a perfectionist that you don't even need to worry about him at all."

"True enough." Raiden shrugged, looking fairly calm despite the accusation. "You need to be thorough in order to be a detective, you know."

"But you need to enjoy life more!" Riley threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly as she turned to Michael, fishing out something from her bag. "Look at this, Michael. He said it wasn't cute. It totally is, right?" Riley grinned as she held out an animal skull as Michael tried not to stumble with his words as he searched through his mind to think of how to word his statement.

"I-it's er...very cute, Riley." Michael lied as he stared at the skull warily before he inched back in the direction of where the bar was. "I think I'm going to head back now. Bye!"

Riley turned to Raiden as if she was going to somehow convince him to hold the skull, and he gave a quick nod. "I'll see you later, Riley."

As Raiden quickly departed, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh as he came to the realization that yes, the guildmembers of Infinite Bloom were unique. _Very_ unique.

* * *

 **A/N: And our team 2 is introduced! Plus some mentions at other characters. Don't worry about those tiny mentions for now or it'll be more overwhelming than it already is They'll come in later, I promise, but for now...yeah...I tried to slow down the scenes a little more but I don't think that worked out. Advice would be much appreciated. ^_^;**

 **Am I getting the OCs right? I get really nervous about that...hehe..if you feel like something's wrong tell me so I can improve~**

 **And thank you for the reviews/reads/favorites/follows! I notice every change and it makes me really happy that you all think this story has potential. Until next time~**


	4. Mission Mayhem

**A/N: Yo! Like said before, this chapter will rotate back to Team 1's mission. But don't worry if your OC hasn't shown up yet: they definitely will in future chapters.**

* * *

Rae was walking down a small road, the wind brushing at her black locks as she couldn't help but take sneaky glances at the person next to her. Their team had split up in order to cover more territory considering their target was to find an entire Dark Guild which was best known for their ruthless ways and constant moving around the East end of Fiore.

Chase, being the wonderful person he was, had decided to unceremoniously dump Rae and Alucard when they had reached Oshibana Town. According to the letter Ames had later sent to them via one of Rae's puppets that she had given him, they were at the moment investigating Clover Town, which was another town farther East.

Rae could almost hear Ames and Mars's frustration from here at leaving their teammates behind.

She tugged at the end of her red Oriental dress, shivering slightly as cold autumn breezes blew at her. She probably should have worn something warmer considering the east coast of Fiore was known for their cooler temperatures. But she knew that she'd never part from that dress: it held too much sentimental meaning for her to part from it. Instead, she resolved to add a sweater and a scarf to her usual outfit.

Oshibana Town seemed to be a small, picturesque town with friendly inhabitants, but that wasn't enough for Rae to dismiss it from hosting a Dark Guild. She cast another glance at Alucard, who was walking seemingly unperturbed as he stared down the road with a relaxed, but wary expression.

For information, they should probably head to the bars to see if any suspicious figures had been hanging around the area. Rae knew for a fact that alcohol loosened quite an amount of tongues from her experience of running her own bar, and often times she was able to use her femininity to her advantage to fish out some information.

She wasn't sure if Alucard, who usually worked as a Lone Wolf during their team missions, would agree to the proposition though.

They were already attracting suspicious glances from a lot of the civilians thanks to Alucard's choice of clothes. Her teammate was wearing nearly all black, from his black leather boots to his black t-shirt, and the eyepatch over his left eye did not help the appearance of being 'completely legal mages on a completely legal mission'.

"Where do you think we should try searching first?" The words flew out of Rae's mouth before she knew it and the Puppet Mistress couldn't help but be annoyed as the man gave her an impassive glance.

"...I'll be going off on my own." He replied coolly, and Rae sighed as she realized that all the lectures Mars and Ames had been giving Alucard about teamwork seemed to be going straight through one ear and out the next.

"No, we're going to go _together._ " Rae emphasized, and the black clad man shook his head.

"It would be better if we covered more territory so we can get out of this town as quick as possible to find those idiots," Alucard said briskly.

Rae had to admit that his point was valid, and sighed as she realized that arguing was fruitless. "Just...head back to the hotel at 8 so we can check in on each other's info?" she suggested meekly and Alucard nodded, taking a swift movement to the left as he turned and began walking to the other side of the town.

Her shoulders slumped as she sighed, mentally cursing her teammates for ditching her. She was going to _kill_ Chase when this mission was finished: he _knew_ how much she hated people manipulating her.

As Alucard walked away without looking back, Rae came to one important realization as she mentally groaned.

It was going to be one _long_ mission.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere Chase was happily humming a tune under his breath as he held his sketchbook in hand, idly noting Clover Town's mountainous area as he sketched using the very tip of his pencil. Sketching, along with a few other things, was one of his hobbies whenever Chase felt bored.

His eyes turned to his two teammates who were walking beside him as he steadily sketched in their profiles. Ames was wearing a long, green overcoat with a yellow hem and yellow shirt underneath, with a collar covering his neck. Chase sketched in Ames's white and green pants in with precision as he drew to Ames's side the pouch his teammate always carried that Chase knew was filled with medical supplies.

Mars, on the other hand, would be much more simple to draw with his dark purple vest and black pants. Chase made sure to add tone to the olive skinned boy's arms as he glanced up every once in a while to make sure he didn't bump into a pole or something.

He could faintly feel the presence of the puzzle Rae had given him the other day in his blue backpack where he kept his Lacrimas, a new invention he had created. He was sure that the Lacrimas would someday become popular in Fiore, and that was why he mass produced them and handed them out to the guild. They would be his first marketing advertisers. He couldn't help but grin as he imagined his teammate's current situation with Alucard.

Faintly, he noticed that Ames was still (politely) lecturing him about leaving behind Alucard and Rae as Mars looked on with faint amusement.

"-and you need to be more considerate of your teammates' feelings," Ames finished as he couldn't help the fretful look on his face. It was obvious that Chase's teammate was quite stressed from the sudden change of pace. Ames sighed, tugging at the yellow collar of his shirt as he pulled at his green overcoat. "Chase, please try to think of how Rae is holding up right now with Alucard. You know that Alucard's uncomfortable about being stuck with teammates, and Rae's usually the kind of person who likes to chat with someone."

"Oh, I know." Chase couldn't help the slightly mischievous smile on his face, both his cybernetic and regular eyes nearly sparkling. "Just think of how much she must be freaking out. Best prank I've thought of yet."

He high fived Mars, who had helped him with the prank (although his teammate was sort of reluctant). Ames sighed, seemingly giving up at lecturing his teammate as instead he opted to start reading a book. The blonde haired boy had learned after a long time not to pursue a point when it came to his teammates.

"Why don't we stop by that cafe over there for something to eat?" Mars suggested, his dimples showing as he smiled at his two teammates, Ames blushing slightly at the sudden grin flashed his way. "I bet they probably have some great spicy food to eat."

"Cafes usually have more desserts and sweets than spicy food." Ames pointed out. Chase knew that Ames was a sweet lover because while they were travelling his teammate often went into the local town's bakery and came out holding sweets for the team. Of course, he also knew that Mars liked spicy food just as much as Ames liked sweets, and so he worked out a compromise that would make everyone happy.

"What about that restaurant instead?" Chase gestured towards a relatively cozy looking restaurant that looked neither uptight nor degrading. "According to the sign they have some new spicy dishes but I'm pretty sure they must have some tasty desserts as well."

Both Ames and Mars nodded at the choice and the boys proceeded to enter the restaurant.

The place was dimly lighted by red and black lights, the theme being somewhere between a mix of rural and festival. Most of the furniture in the room was made of a deep, dark wood and the floor lined by uneven stones which gave the whole restaurant a charming look to it.

"A table for three, please," Ames said politely as the waitress nodded, shooting them a bright (fake) smile as she led them to a booth at the corner of the restaurant. Chase sat across from Ames and Mars, who were sitting side by side as the waitress set down their menus.

"Call me over when you're ready," she said with a sunny smile, and with a flourish she walked away but not before winking flirtatiously at Mars, who graced her with a smile back.

Chase raised his eyebrow. "You sure are picking up the ladies, aren't you Mars?"

He could see Ames nearly choke on air at the sudden comment.

"She was just being nice." Mars dismissed modestly as he opened up the menu and examined it for a few moments, their group's conversation falling into silence as each individual selected what they wanted. Mars signalled for the waitress, who had been eying the group hungrily, to come to take their orders.

The waitress hurried over with several glasses of water balanced on a tray. She carefully set them down in front of all of them and Mars nodded in thanks.

"I'll just have a salad." Chase selected the cheapest thing on the menu, memories of his days living on the streets flashing through his mind. "Your choice of dressing. I don't really mind."

"Can I have the avgolemono soup please?" Ames asked politely, the waitress nodding and writing down both orders.

"I'll have a spicy tuna steak please." Mars shot the waitress a brilliant smile as he adjusted the collar of his purple vest. "What kind of drink do you recommend?"

"Err...w-we have the Clover Cocktail which is indigenous to this region, sir." The waitress stammered, caught off guard as she unknowingly blushed at the black haired boy's heavy gaze.

"Hm...that sounds interesting. How much is it?" Mars pressed, almost sparking as his beautiful blue eyes gazed at the waitress pleadingly, making sure his black hair swept to the side of his face handsomely as he asked her.

"For you, free." The waitress purred, seemingly recovering as Mars grinned at her.

"Thank you, Miranda." Mars took note of the nametag on the collar of her uniform as the girl blushed before nodding frantically and collecting the menus, hurrying off to fulfill their orders. His eyes trailed after her for a moment before turning back to his teammates and giving them a bright smile. "So, what are we going to do about the mission?"

Both Ames and Chase were staring at their teammate in slight shock before the moment wore off as both of them shook their heads to dismiss the spell that had held them captive.

"Mars, that was awesome!" Chase grinned boyishly at his friend. "Rae and I been rubbing off of you much?"

"It was very smart of you, I suppose." Ames fidgeted slightly in his seat.

"Thanks." Mars nodded. "But I guess it was sort of mean to use her like that, but, well, take what you get, you know?"

"Yep!" Chase beamed, knowing perfectly what his friend meant.

"Anyways," Ames said, returning to Mars's earlier point. "For the mission we need to look for the dark guild known as Fallen Angels-" he ignored Chase's snort at the unoriginal name, "-and they should be in the east area of Fiore according to the mission guidelines. Rae and Alucard are in Oshibana Town and after I suspect they'll head here. We should stick around here for a few extra days, then. Where should we start investigating?"

"I suggest the town hall because it has town records, plus it's a nice diplomatic move to greet the mayor of the town and inform them we're on a mission so we don't get arrested or something. It could help our guild's reputation." Chase piped up and both Mars and Ames looked at him in faint surprise as the boy looked faintly insulted. "What?"

"I never knew you could...well, say something intelligent," Mars said slowly, Ames hesitatingly agreeing with Mars's point.

"How cruel, my friend!" Chase pouted. Before he could say anything else, however, they were interrupted by Miranda, the waitress. The food had arrived along with Mars's drink, and they dug in knowing fully well they'd need all the energy they could get in order to complete their mission.

* * *

Alucard was not happy. Not happy at all. All the raven haired man wanted was some peace, and yet he somehow found himself sitting alongside his teammate, Rae, as she went on to chatter noisily. It was officially three days since they had first explored Oshibana Town, and finally the two decided to move on to the next town. They had hitched a ride from a travelling foot carriage and were at the moment travelling to Clover Town where his traitorous teammates were.

Luckily, there was no one else present in the carriage rather than themselves so Alucard found it quite easy to stay silent while his teammate rambled on.

"So it seems as if the guild stayed in Oshibana for about a week but moved further up North on Fiore's east coast." Rae concluded. She blinked for a moment, amber eyes narrowing. "Hey, are you listening to me?"

"Yes." He gave her a disinterested look that seemed to contradict the statement though, as the golden eyed girl let out an exasperated sigh.

"Wonderful."

Suddenly, both mages were thrown forward by the abrupt stop the carriage came to as both narrowly missed hitting their heads on the wall. Instead, Rae sat back up, groaning slightly as she massaged her head. "What was that?"

"I don't know." Alucard kept on his blank face, but instead he closed his eyes as he tried to feel his surroundings. His teammate beside him had fallen silent as she realized what he was doing, instead standing up and sliding open the door of the carriage. "There's something out there."

Alucard stood up himself as he followed Rae, who had hopped down the set of stairs that had popped out when she opened the door. Their carriage was surrounded by men of various shapes and sizes, all holding pistols and aiming straight towards the carriage occupants.

"Put your hands up right in the air and don't try anything funny!"

It seemed like they were stuck in the middle of a highway robbery, Rae thought amusedly as she watched Alucard tense slightly, getting ready to fight, although only those who had been with Alucard for a while (aka his team) could really distinguish the tiny motions that factored towards a different emotion. Rae simply smiled, already knowing that her teammate would be enough to take care of all the men but anyways raised her hands up as the men demanded. Her fingers twitched ever so slightly as she knew her puppets were inside the carriage and ready to fight as soon as she indicated it.

"Well, this is troublesome, isn't it?" Rae asked her teammate cheerfully as Alucard let out a grunt, his line of vision never faltering as he stared at the leader of the robbers with an intense gaze that left the man nervous.

Both parties waited to see who would make the first move. Faintly, out of the corner of his right crimson eye, Alucard could see the carriage driver cowering behind Rae. That was good, because he knew that his teammate could take care of the civilian if necessary. The robbers seemed to be civilians as well, although Alucard wouldn't underestimate them in case any of them were mages. He wouldn't want to be caught off guard again, and the scar right over his heart would be a permanent reminder of that.

"Men! Invade the carriage and bring out any valuables!" The head robber barked as his minions complied with the order. Alucard sent Rae a look, and the shallow woman simply gave him a shrug and an innocent smile, mouthing something that was probably akin to 'you're the S-class mage here, don't rely on me!'. As some of the robbers entered the carriage he could hear screams which probably meant that Rae's Puppet Magic was in action.

Several puppets danced around, wielding deadly blades as they cut through the enemy while Rae controlled them adaptly using her fingers. "Go! I got you covered!" She shouted at Alucard, who nodded.

He whipped around, muttering under his breath, " _Phantom Dance!"_ as his sheathed sword appeared in his left hand. Alucard quickly unsheathed it, darting forward and making several slashes upon the enemy. He sprang up from the ground, his legs moving at full speed as he dashed towards the leader, fully intent on cutting off the head of the serpent. The man saw the intensity in his eyes and yelped, commanding his men to cover him.

That was nothing for Alucard. He slashed through the men, and he was aware of the dark blue aura that was beginning to form around him as he finally reached the man, putting his sword against his neck. "Do you surrender?" Alucard asked, looking mildly composed despite having cut down at least twenty men to get to the leader as he kept on his pokerface.

The man gave him a scared look before a dark shadow came over his face. "Fat chance," he hissed at Alucard as the Infinite Bloom mage had to jump back a few steps to make sure he didn't get impaled by the spear that had suddenly appeared.

Alucard supposed the man was a Re-Equip mage, although that wasn't very effective on him. Even so, it seemed as if there was something... _different_ that distinguished this man from all the Re-Equip mages Alucard had fought in the past. His Blademaster Magic was definitely superior: Re-Equip Magic was almost like a degraded copy of his magic.

The man chuckled evilly, his face shadowed completely. "You think you can beat us? My guildmates are coming now. Despite your namesake, Infinite Bloom mages Alucard Date and Rae Kamachi, flowers wilt. We, the Fallen Angels, do not."

Alucard kept a straight face as he asked, "What?"

"Alucard!" He heard Rae call from behind his left shoulder. "He's from the Dark Guild we were assigned to _find_."

Oh, they were screwed, Rae thought as she bit her lip. Alucard probably wasn't worrying about it too much: he always kept his cool even in the direst of circumstances (and Rae knew that for a fact when the man had nearly stepped up to defeat an army of over 100 troops before Ames stopped him).

She inched back towards the carriage, darting inside for a moment as she searched for the Communication Lacrima Chase had given her. Lacrimas, as he dubbed them, were crystals that could do almost anything. Rae was sure if Chase tried to introduce Lacrimas to the market they would be a great hit, but that thought was irrelevant now. To her relief she found the glowing green orb inside her bag and waited for a few moments. "I need to speak to Chase. Or Ames. Or Mars, whoever's there."

The orb glowed, and after a few moments of static someone's voice came over the line.

" _-Rae? Can't-signal...haywire-"_

"Chase!" Rae said hurriedly. "We encountered one of the members of the Dark Guild and need your help, ASAP. We're about halfway the distance between Clover Town and Oshibana." She started to list off the details of the area they were in, knowing her teammate had a device to calculate where they were exactly.

It seemed as if the static was clearing up, or perhaps Chase was working on something from his side of the line.

" _...got it. I'll-Mars and Ames-stay there."_

By the sounds happening outside, Alucard and the man were probably still battling. She hurried outside, literally jumping out of the carriage and landing on solid ground just in time to see Alucard lunging at the man while at least a dozen various weapons in the air moved to impale the man. Somehow, the robber managed to evade the attack and even though Alucard didn't show it, by the heavy breathing he was doing, Rae knew that her teammate must have missed a crucial spell for him to be that winded up.

Some of her puppets had been cut in half by the enemy, and Rae's fingers moved adroitly as she tried to make them self-repair themselves. With her left hand, however, she began controlling the unconscious bodies of the robbers to attack their leaders.

Her Puppet Magic only allowed her to manipulate humans and human-like bodies, after all, so she had to make the most use of its advantages. She knew, however, that there were other kinds of magic, for example Doll Attack Magic, which allowed the user to manipulate inanimate objects.

They were just about to defeat the man when the sound of hooves against ground caught their attention. Alucard's eye darted up to see at least a dozen Dark Mages, all with various weapons and mounted on horses, heading their way.

The man in the middle of the Dark Mages raised his obsidian mace and let out a battle cry, and with that the rest of the mages closed in, weapons ready and bodies tense as several bursts of magic surrounded them.

"Well, shoot." Alucard heard his teammate say under her breath.

This mission was not going their ideal way.

* * *

 **A/N: Weee! Again, thank you for all the kind support you've been giving me. I tried to include more appearance (I've never been good at that kind of thing...) as you might have told, so thank you to _DeathTheManiac_ and _puffypuffin3_ for pointing that out. I hope you've enjoyed Team 1's dysfunctional mission because we're heading back to Malba City next chapter.**


	5. Late at Night

**A/N: Ah, increasing Team 3's dynamics. A little action for them for now as I begin to slip in the tiniest of plot~**

 **Thank you for all the kind reviews! They really made my day and made me update a lot sooner.**

* * *

It was closing time, somewhere past midnight as their late closing times was another thing the Midnight's Delight was known for, and Iris was just wiping down one of the last glasses of the bar when the dark mahogany doors of the bar slammed open. She looked up and to her surprise recognized the figure standing in the doorway.

"Yo!" A white haired, tall girl called out, tugging at the ends of her purple skirt as she zipped over to Iris. "Guess what?"

"Riley," Iris greeted, her baby blue eyes blinking in faint surprise as she pulled back her pink hair so it flowed behind her back. "What's the matter?"

"So I was with Raiden who was apparently on another one of his cases when the new Lacrima thing Chase's been working on glowed." Riley started, and Iris nodded to show her understanding. The new invention had been made in the bulk by Chase and some of their other guildmates, and the Communication Lacrimas were distributed to every guild member. Riley continued, "Apparently Team 1 split up, and Rae and Alucard have officially provoked the Dark Guild they were sent to locate."

Iris set down the glass, her lips pressing to a thin line as she realized the gravity of the situation. "What's happening? Will we need to be dispatched?"

"The rest of Team 1's heading there for backup, and apparently the Master's thinking of sending someone for a diplomatic mission to make sure we don't get into a guild war or anything like that. The Dark Guild's name is Fallen Angels or something, and he wants to avoid violence if possible."

Iris nodded. "I heard that they could be vicious. Apparently one of the guilds on the west coast of Fiore got completely destroyed from a guild war with a Dark Guild recently."

Guild wars, which were wars between both unofficial and official guilds, were common in this era considering the Council had only recently formed. Iris even heard that a while back a small island off the coast of Fiore (what was its name again? Tenroujima or something) had been completely wiped out save on person. A group of mages had come in the bar a few weeks ago talking about it, proudly brandishing their new companion, a small girl who was named Mavis.

It was just another example of how their world was yet to adapt fully to magic, Iris thought mournfully as she asked, "Do we need to do anything in specifics?"

"Nah, I'm sure they'll be fine. They're crazy, but Team 1 is also really powerful and well balanced." Riley grinned.

"Mm." Iris nodded. Changing the subject easily, she balanced her elbow on the counter as she propped her face up, cupping her hands around her chin. "Where are Raiden and Michael?" She referred to their two teammates.

"Probably going on about justice to the criminal Raiden just caught on one of the cases. The man was about to rob this elderly lady's house when the two caught him." Riley giggled.

Iris never thought she could feel bad for a criminal until that moment, thinking of how much both Raiden and Michael valued justice. If she was to label each team at Infinite Bloom something, their team would definitely be the 'justice team'. Other teams were much more controversial, such as Team 1 with their tricksters and somewhat twisted morals but their team was very...moral overall.

"Want to head out and find them? I'm sure if we hurry we can catch them heading back from the Town Hall right now." Riley offered as Iris tilted her head, considering the notion. Raiden and Michael were often out at late times like them thanks to Raiden's nighttime job as a detective, so it wouldn't surprise her if they bumped into them on the way heading back to the guild apartments or something. She did want some more information on Team 1's haywire mission, after all, because Iris was sort of worried about her fellow guildmates.

"Wait here for a moment so I can change into my regular clothes," Iris excused herself as Riley nodded. Eyeing her teammate's outfit, Iris added, "You might want to change into something less...attention drawing as well."

Riley was wearing a long purple scarf that was strangely... _backwards?_ The scarf went along with her white button up with poofy sleeves and short purple circle skirt, and her white leggings, purple leggings, and purple gloves added to the theme. Iris was used to her friend looking strange, but she couldn't help but think that if they were going to walk around Malba City it would be better not to look like a pair of weirdos.

"Nah, it's fine." Riley shrugged, unperturbed by Iris's skeptical stare as the white haired girl sat back in her chair while Iris headed to the back room reserved specifically for workers to change into her regular outfit. She slipped on her white and gold kimono-the outfit had a short shirt, which made it easy for scamming customers and mobility and wrapped her red scarf around her neck (the right way, unlike Riley). Her white stockings and red brown boots were already on, along with her silver cross necklace she'd never dare to part with.

She exited the room, nodding towards Riley as her neck snuggled further into her scarf. Iris had spent nearly her whole day in the bar serving mainly warm _sake_ thanks to the cold autumn winds, and now that it was dark out, it must be even colder in Malba City.

Before exiting the bar with Riley in tow, Iris paused for a moment and looked back towards where Kei was lounging in the bar. "Close it up for me, will you? And don't forget guild duty's in an hour or so. Don't be late."

"Sure do." Her co worker nodded, his eyes already beginning to drift close. "I'll stick around here for now and catch some sleep while I can. Sleep's better than any kind of pastime."

Deciding not to argue with that, Iris nodded and headed outside with Riley at her side.

* * *

They were walking along the cobblestone paths of Malba City, the pathway dimly lit by magic lanterns Infinite Bloom had began to regulate in their hometown ever since a psycho serial murderer got away thanks to the cover of the night.

"Let's try cutting through this alleyway to save some time. Raiden and Michael might be back in the apartments already." Riley tugged on Iris's sleeve as Iris looked apprehensively at the dark alleyway that spanned for such an amount that even when she squinted she couldn't see the end of it.

Iris debated on whether or not to enter before firmly shaking her head. "It's these kind of cliche situations that always put your life in danger, you know. Come on, Riley, we can still catch up to them if we head down the street."

Of course, knowing her teammate's rotten luck, Iris shouldn't have mentioned anything as she felt hard stare coming from someone on the other end of the street. The pink haired girl continued to walk normally although she sort of quickened her pace, Riley thankfully staying silent as they headed back to the dorms.

They must have been three quarters of the way there when Iris felt a grimy hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see one of the drunks she had sent out of the bar sneering at her, his eyes obviously clouded thanks to the influence of both alcohol and lust. "Hey, pretty lady, why are you out so late? You know that it's not safe for women to be out at this time of the night alone. Why don't my buddies and I... _escort_ you back home?"

"No thanks," Iris said shortly as any lines of happiness from her face disappeared as her eyes narrowed. As much as she liked to believe the man was a nice person, alcohol could do things to people Iris didn't want to see. Better to hightail it out as soon as possible. "We'll do fine by ourselves."

"Come on, now." The man leered closer, and Iris sighed and realized she should have sent Riley home earlier: the girl was a danger-magnet, and making her walk around the streets past midnight was just asking for trouble. The man's companions began to circle them and Iris jolted at the sudden hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry, but these two are with us." Michael smiled softly although his blue eyes gleamed dangerously as the men backed away a couple of steps. "And I doubt you'd like to attack any members of Infinite Bloom, correct?"

"So you're one of those snobby mages," the man chuckled sinisterly, drawing a knife from his back pocket as his companions did the same. "Good, then. We were ordered to kill you."

Iris stiffened, her mind racing as she cast a glance at Riley who was luckily standing next to Raiden. He must have shown up with Michael, Iris realized dimly as she bit her lip. _Concentrate._

It was possible that these men were just drunk, but the last sentence the man said indicated otherwise. Could they possibly be related to what was going on with Team 1's gone haywire mission? A Dark Guild…

"Hm…" Michael tapped a finger to his chin, the boy oddly not at all afraid in the situation as he removed his glasses, slicking his hair back as he rolled up his sleeves. Her teammate's eyes were serious, Iris realized as she took in this new side of Michael. "I suppose you won't tell us _who_ ordered you to do that, would you?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Raiden tense, preparing to protect himself and Riley, who was their healer and was weaker at hand-to-hand combat compared to the Lightning Mage. The air seemed to be holding its breath for a moment, no one moving before two words broke the silence.

"Hell no." The man motioned for his goons to start moving, and Iris grimaced as she turned, facing her enemies back to back with Michael, who strangely was a comforting presence to her. Her teammate, from what she knew of his personality, should have been shaking and scared, and she couldn't help but be a little confused at the sudden change of personality.

 _Ah, that's right._ Justice. That was the one thing Michael valued the most, and killing people was probably not high on his list of things that was morally right. Usually Michael would pair up with Raiden during battles and Raiden would often tell her afterwards about how _different_ he was during battle, but Iris would dismiss it as nonsense.

Now, watching him transform, shouting, " _Takeover: Hero Soul! Justicar!"_ she couldn't help but think otherwise.

She turned back away, focusing on the three men in front of her as a smile wormed its way onto her lips as she felt pieces of the earth rise into the night sky. " _Meteor,"_ she whispered, as meteors literally began to rain down on their enemies.

To their right, Raiden was protecting Riley, their healer, electricity sparking around the man as lightning struck their enemies as Riley worked on several buffing spells to help her teammate.

They could handle this.

* * *

Several minutes later, Team 3 was standing in the middle of a dark street surrounded by the unconscious bodies of their attackers. Riley had just finished healing their wounds with her magic, and although she felt a little faint from the loss of energy she remained standing.

"Are they alive?" Michael asked quietly as he seemed to revert back into his quiet state, his takeover disappearing as their regular Michael returned. Riley hurried over to the unconscious bodies, checking each pulse and nodding a confirmative. A weight seemed to have been taken off of his shoulders as the pink haired boy slumped to the ground, sighing wearily. "You two really should be more careful."

"Roger that, captain." Riley saluted happily.

"You really should be more careful, though." Raiden said, his face still completely calm despite what they had just been through. "Especially you, Riley, considering your knack of getting into trouble."

The white haired girl giggled, unable to reply to that as memories of her grandfather's loving face as he told her the story of why their family was 'cursed' flashed through her mind. She pushed the thought away, jumping up with a silly grin on her face. "It'll be fine. I'm still alive right now, right?"

"Thanks to us…" Raiden grumbled, clearly still cross about their unplanned trip to the countryside for fossils together. He was always a perfectionist and liked everything planned ahead of time, which was why he was in charge of scheduling how they'd arrive to wherever their missions were.

"Yep! But that's what teams are for, right?" Riley beamed as Michael nodded, smiling at her.

"Personally I think some of the teams in our guild just get us into more trouble." Iris laughed, ruining the severity of her statement as thoughts of the other teams of Infinite Bloom flew through her mind.

Team 1 was...dysfunctional, to say the least. It was as if the Master had given up and put all the psychos together in one group, but then again the rest of them weren't that sane either. Hopefully their craziness would balance each other out. They took on any mission they got, although usually Ames (who Iris personally thought was the only sane one on that team) picked less violent missions to Alucard's disapproval. It didn't matter in the end because the team would always end up pissing off their enemies, client, or each other and the mission would go straight to hell.

Team 2 had conflicting personalities that sort of balanced each other out, with Kei being the happy one, a powerful mage named Isaac being the serious one, Iris's friend Grace being the reckless one, and Riley's friend Ava being the creepy one. Kei had often claimed that they needed someone who was between weird and sane to keep them all together, and the team usually focused on espionage missions.

Team 4 was a very independent team that had individuals who liked working by themselves, to their leader Marcus's frustration. Victoria and Gizma, two girls who always had their heads in the clouds, would often wander off during missions according to Marcus, and Jakkura was not much of a team player. At all. They focused on transporting important documents from the Council around Fiore, mainly because it gave them a lot of free room to travel and didn't require as much teamwork as other missions.

Iris was personally thankful for her team: they were the most sane out of the four, and were usually assigned escort missions for that singular purpose. (Master had learned from experience to _never_ send Team 2 on an escort mission: their client had been severely traumatized afterwards.) They worked out well together. Sometimes, they could snag a mission for apprehending a criminal, but that was usually left to Team 1's sadistic ways.

Occasionally, some of the more powerful mages from the teams would be gathered for an assassination mission from the Council and the rest of the teams would be left in what Chase lovingly dubbed 'Happy Hour', mainly because they all ransacked Rae's bar and completely obliterated Malba City's peace.

Iris both dreaded and anticipated those times: it was one of the best times for mages from other teams to bond, but usually ended up with at least one person injured whether it be from a prank or a spar.

"Michael, what do you think our next mission will be?" Iris asked hesitatingly as their team walked back to the guild's apartments.

"I don't know. Probably another escort mission for one of the Council members, I guess. You know how they're trying to establish authority right now to set up for the future generations to come."

"Hm…" Iris wondered how probable it was she would meet Zero during her travels. She had not seen him for a long time, but she felt in her heart he must have been alive.

"W-why?" Michael questioned.

"Eh? No reason. Just wondering if I'll see someone again." Iris laughed.

"Who?" This time Raiden spoke up, looking fairly calm as Riley nudged him for his insensitiveness (although the white haired girl wasn't too much better).

"He-he…" She struggled to find the words that would express the proper emotion she was trying to get across as her blue eyes softened. "...he's someone who helped me improve my magic." Iris admitted, her eyes looking off far in the distance as Michael hummed thoughtfully. "My brother."

"I see."

They had reached the apartments, and Riley quickly hurried up the stairs leading to the rooms where all of the Infinite Bloom members stayed. "Ava's probably waiting for me," she explained hurriedly as she gave them all a nod. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess?"

Iris nodded. "Feel free to stop by the bar, I'm stuck in there with nothing to do."

"Sure. Ah, and thanks." Riley directed this to Raiden and Michael, smiling at them as both boys who blushed a little, Michael mainly from embarrassment and Raiden from...something as they both nodded. She knocked on the door, a blonde girl with electric blue eyes opening it and welcoming her inside. Ava gave them all a nod as well before closing the door, grinning at them creepily.

Iris, Michael, and Raiden stood outside for a little before Iris shivered at the sudden draft of cold that had wafted in the room. She turned to the boys. "I'll see you later, okay? Thanks for tonight."

"See you later, Iris." Michael acknowledged as Raiden added, "Don't do something like that again."

"I'll try." Iris gave them both a smile as she waved. "See you later, heroes."

She turned and headed down the hallway, stopping in front of a door and fishing a key from under the flowerpot next to it as she unlocked the door and went inside. Rae was her roommate, so for now she was staying there alone.

Meanwhile, in the hallway Raiden raised his eyebrows at Michael, crossing his arms over his chest as he smiled slightly, nudging his teammate, his ever straight face twitching. "So...' _hero',_ eh?"

"R-Raiden!"

* * *

 **A/N: So...this question will eventually become more important but I should ask it now. To those who submitted their OCs, was there any of you who didn't want your OC(s) paired up with another character? A lot of you specified, but some of you didn't mention it at all so I just assumed you'd want them to be shipped.**

 **Also, the plot's moving. This chapter was shorter but meh, increasing team dynamics is my number one concern right now. Part of team 2 will be appearing in the next Malba City rotation and Team 1's mission will be wrapping to a close.**

 **Feel free to drop a review~ It makes me happy~ (read: I'm a hopeless review hoarder...)**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading!**


	6. New Appearances

**A/N: I utterly apologize for not updating sooner. Life happens.**

* * *

"Aw, great." Chase stared at the broken Lacrima as he grimaced, not at all happy with the results of his invention as he stared out of the carriage window in impatience. "How long will the carriage ride take?"

"Possibly an hour or two," Ames said softly, painfully aware of the bad situation their team was in. His legs were crossed neatly as his hands gripped together, his white knuckles the only sign of discomfort visibly shown rather than his tense figure. He mentally kicked himself. He knew that he shouldn't have let them split up…

"Ugh, for all we know Rae and Alucard could be dead right now." Mars buried his face in his hands as he bit his lip, worried. His raven black hair had fallen across his face, shielding it from view as he said in a muffled voice. "This is all our fault."

"Well, I must say that Alucard must have done something to provoke them," Chase added as Mars sent him a withering glance, resisting the urge to grab his flute and start playing a melody as he deadpanned,

"They're our comrades."

Chase grew silent for a moment, seemingly pondering something before giving them both a smile. "Well, we can't just be moping around like this. It doesn't really help, right? So instead we should be coming up with things that can help them."

It seemed as if those words had slightly lightened the dark atmosphere as Mars sat up, his mouth still firmly a frown but his eyes a little more clear as he nodded. "Have you contacted the guild yet?"

Chase nodded.

Mars imagined that back in Malba City must be chaos, or at the very least the gossip mill must be having the time of their life. He wondered how all their guildmates were faring: were they worried about them? Of course, some more apathetic people like Jakkura might not be as affected, but he was sure that Michael and his team must have been worrying.

"We're all not long ranged fighters," Ames said thoughtfully as he considered their choices. "I'm a support unit but I doubt my range is great enough for me to try helping from here. Chase is a close-ranged fighter, and Mars, your flute probably won't work from here either, correct?"

"Yeah." Mars said, frowning slightly as all three boys tried to think of something.

Suddenly, Chase brightened as he shot up. "Puppet!" Seeing his teammates' looks that urged him to continue, Chase elaborated as he pulled said object out of his backpack. "Rae gave it to me "

"She gave you one?" Mars asked incredulously, knowing the strange bantering relationship the two held. They would keep on trying to annoy the other person and see who broke first, and quite frankly it drove Mars and Ames insane (he couldn't tell if it had any effect on Alucard).

He shrugged. "She said it was in case I ever wandered off because we can send our magic and signals back and forth through it." He omitted the fact that she had also added it was because she knew he was the only idiot who could actually get distracted and wander off on the mission. "But that's not the point. Since all of her puppets are linked back to her, we can transfer magic through it, right?"

"Well, her magic is transferred from her body to the puppets, so I suppose so." Ames mused.

"We can try," Mars said stubbornly as he gestured towards Ames. "I think your magic will help them the most right now."

Ames closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as a green magic circle began to form around them as he said without opening his eyes, "Do I just focus my magic on the puppet?"

"I guess." Chase squinted at the tiny wooden doll, shrugging.

"Énergie." A sudden gust of wind, which shouldn't have been possible in the small carriage, whipped past them as the green light around them slowly faded, the puppet glowing for a second before reverting back to its original color.

"I guess that worked?" Mars suggested as the three looked outside the window again. The rocky terrain around them was slowly disappearing and they were making their way to the denser forest terrain where their teammates were located.

"I hope it did." Ames corrected.

They continued to travel in silence.

* * *

"I swear, those idiots are going to get it when they come." Rae growled, her finger twitching and making one of her puppets kick a Dark Mage in the face so hard the average human should have twisted their neck and died. The man had simply gotten back up again, looking completely fine.

"Having any luck over there?" she called over her shoulder towards Alucard, who gave her a glance before giving a grunt. "...gee, what a warm response."

They were being overpowered. Anyone could see that, if anyone was even in the unpopulated dense forest they were in. The trees had long, slender branches with large vines hanging off of them and if Rae had any time she would have cut off some of the branches herself to create a puppet out of the ivory wood, but the vines also made it harder for her to see through the thick forage as she winced, a sharp blade lightly grazing her right arm.

If they had the rest of their team, Rae knew they could win. Despite their...differences, Chase was strong and easily could keep up with Alucard when it came to frontal assault, and Mars's Arc of the Heavens helped strengthen her puppets, making it easier for her to attack. And Ames was always the person who supported them from the behind-ah, yes, they were quite a team in everything but personality.

"Ah, shoot." She muttered under her breath as she took a blow to her side, the wound reminding her that she needed to focus as she felt herself being pushed back with every swipe the enemy made at her. Apparently they finally figured out the easiest way to get rid of all her puppets was to come to the source of the trouble, and although some stayed behind with Alucard, several made their way towards her, brandishing their weapons.

Suddenly, Rae felt a surge of magic rush towards her and her eyes darted around to find the source, only to look down and see her body glowing a luminescent green. She had only seen the shade a few times whenever Ames tried to raise their team's magic pow-Ames! Rae realized that the boys must have been doing something from wherever they were and she felt her magic replenish herself.

"Alucard!" She called and although the man was still focused on his battle she knew he could hear her. "I'm going to attach my magic to yours for a little and transfer Ames's Énergie spell to you." The man gave a curt nod, slashing through the enemy as if they were cheese, although it seemed like the opponent he was facing could turn into sand whenever cut down.

She concentrated on the outpour of magic coming from what must have been Ames, mentally creating a string between herself and Alucard as she willed the magic to transfer to her teammate. Luckily, it did, and although Rae felt a little dizzy afterwards her magic reserves were much more filled than before.

She smirked, flexing her fingers as she motioned for the men to just try and take her, puppets surrounding her all armed with blades. She'd be fine.

Meanwhile, Alucard was getting increasingly incensed by the man in front of him, but instead of lashing out at the enemy, he started chuckling darkly, his arms trembling from not fear but excitement. He smirked, an action that usually frightened everyone away, but his opponent simply returned the look. "Congratulations, you've officially made me have to do this."

Slowly, a dark blue aura began to surround the man as he chuckled again. Any lesser man would have run away a long time ago, but surprisingly the enemy stood his ground. "Fun...so fun. It's been so long since I've had a challenge." Alucard whispered.

He felt the rush of energy Rae promised come to him like a wave as he felt his power surge exponentially, and it took all he could not to swipe at the man with a blade he had created. Instead, he handled his katana with finesse as he stabbed it into the ground, muttering darkly, "Cataclysm."

From the ground erupted a world of heat and fire, flames licking at him as they desperately searched for fuel. Some of the trees had caught on fire, the flames burning bright and lighting up the forest as his enemy had to jump back to avoid being scorched by the sheer heat and force of the eruption.

"You're strong enough," the man admitted, and he twirled his dagger around his finger as he gave Alucard a snide grin. "But do you think that just some little flames can stop me?"

Before Alucard could do anything the man turned into sand, which rushed through the fire at an astounding speed as Alucard parried the strike that would have hit his heart had he been a moment later. Their swords clashed, and Alucard's trustworthy katana did him will as he twirled around and delivered a backslash at his opponent, who answered in a slash at his leg which he swiftly dodged.

Their weapons met again, and it was up to the wielder's physical strength as Alucard smirked, knowing he had won. The man knew that too, yet he also smiled at Alucard. "Sayonara, disgusting legal mage."

Alucard moved quickly, throwing the man off the cliff which he had noticed his opponent inching their battle towards just in time, barely managing dodging a knock that surely would have thrown him off the cliff as well. He paused for one moment, acknowledging the loss of his opponent who certainly died considering the cliff was at least a hundred feet tall, before making off to find Rae.

* * *

Rae was at the moment not a happy camper. What was Alucard thinking, creating fire of all things? First of all, her puppets were made of wood, which meant they were highly flammable. She had been using some of the unconscious robbers as puppets, but they had woken up now and that made it hard for her to control them when the men were actively trying to go against her manipulating.

She cursed, golden eyes darting around for something to fight with as the Dark Mages drew closer, each of them smirking at the sure victory. Rae was a Puppet Mistress, which also meant she was mainly reliant on her puppets. Without them, she was nothing but a normal person with slightly above average combat abilities (and the only reason her abilities were slightly above average was because of her speed: not her ability to fight back).

Rae had been using a spot up high in the trees, not too high so that she couldn't see through the leaves but not too low where it would leave her undefended, but thanks to Alucard's Cataclysm she had been forced onto the ground to avoid becoming burnt to a crisp.

She grabbed a sharp blade from the burnt remains of one of her puppets, wincing at the sudden heat transfer from doing so, as she readied herself to go down fighting. Hopefully her ability to make her puppets throw projectiles could apply to herself. She moved with the most finesse one could with her injuries as she jumped, twisting into a somersault and managing to make her way to the top of a gigantic rock where she would make her last stand.

If she died, she was going to haunt Chase for all eternity, she promised to herself. Rae had always been a person who could hold grudges for a long time.

One of the mages shouted something, most likely a spell, as a dome surrounded her, and she nearly fell to the ground from the sudden loss of air pressure. An Air Mage, she thought warily as she tried her best to conserve her breaths. She breathed in once before breathing out, closing her eyes.

Focus.

Just like anything, if there was a way to create something, there was a way to destroy it. Puppet Magic, despite its name, was more than just manipulating puppets. She could manipulate anything if she really tried, although human shaped objects were all the better. Her eyes blinked as she noticed the small runes that surrounded the edge of the dome and triumphantly she grinned, manipulating her magic into the Runes. The men had apparently noticed what she was trying to do and they all started moving faster to stop her, but it was too late and the dome shattered.

She felt dizzy, and a lot of her magic had gone down the drain in her effort to destroy the spell, but it worked and that was enough to make her smile. She'd at least try to bring down some goons with her.

Before either party could do anything, however, a boyish voice shouted from behind her, "Constellation: Capricorn!"

Rae nearly squeaked as she narrowly avoided being blasted from the beams of light coming from the shape of the constellation Capricorn which had appeared above her and the enemies. She turned, her green hair nearly whipping her in the face from the sudden motion, and to her amazement saw a boy.

He was clad with a black dress shirt, along with tight black pants and black shoes. A silver cross hung around his neck, and faintly she could make out a silver stud in one of his ears. The boy was brandishing his black gloved hand in the air, looking fairly triumphant as a golden magic circle surrounded him.

"Seems as if there was a disturbance in the forest. Now why are all of you men ganging up on one pretty lady?" The boy smirked arrogantly, raising his eyebrows daringly at her enemies. "Now, why don't you try one on me? I promise you I haven't lost one challenge yet and don't think I will."

Before Rae could protest (not like she would protest to some mysterious stranger saving her), the enemies had charged past her, enraged from the boy's taunts as he gave an acknowledging tilt of the head to Rae before murmuring, "Star Blast."

The enemies were thrown back from a sudden burst of light coming from his palm, and Rae watched as two of the men hit their heads on the ground and did not get up. The remaining three men were glaring menacingly at the boy, and she moved quickly, channeling her energy through her fingers and metaphorically towards the unconscious bodies as she nearly giggled from delight at gaining new playto...puppets.

The boy and herself moved in tandem, one creating another burst of light and the other making the bodies swipe at their comrades with the blades they held. In a matter of minutes, the forest was cleared up; Alucard's fire seemingly dying down, and all of the men were defeated and lying cold on the ground.

"Anyone else here?" The boy's voice broke the silence, and Rae couldn't help but be a little surprised. Despite the mysterious mage's strength, judging by his voice he must be around her age.

"One. A teammate." Rae answered back.

She hopped off from the rock she had been standing on as she released the bond she had been using to manipulate the mages' bodies. Something moved through the brush and both her and the boy tensed before the movement was revealed to be Alucard.

The black clad man's eyes darted around the scene, taking in the new appearance and the defeated bodies slumped on the ground as Rae hurried to explain before her savior was burned to a crisp, "He helped me out. Your fire took out most of my puppets so I was at quite a disadvantage until he came."

Alucard seemed to have deemed this a sufficient enough explanation as he gave her a curt nod.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Rae asked, taking in her teammate's somewhat exhausted looking frame.

"Nothing serious." He shrugged off her concern.

"Well, there you go." The boy shrugged. "I'm not going to question why you two are out here nor why a Dark Guild's targeting you, because that's none of my business and personally I'm a very private person, but I believe you two will need some help getting to wherever your next destination is, am I correct?"

Alucard and Rae exchanged glances and the man gave her a slight tilt of his head which meant for her to speak for them, considering how much he disliked working with people.

"We were supposed to head to Clover Town to meet up with our teammates, but now they should be on their way here so that's out of the window." Rae shrugged, directing her next question to the boy. "Do you mind leading us to the nearest town from here if you know? Sorry to bother you, but we can't contact them from here."

"I guess." The boy didn't seemed too inclined to discuss himself as he nodded towards the broken carriage. "You can't ride by that, so we'll have to walk. You should probably get the driver who's cowering under there so we can bring him to the next town."

Alucard was already on the move to the carriage, giving a glare at their driver that made the man immediately get up and walk over to them. Rae let out a soft giggle as she turned to the boy, giving him a smile although she couldn't look up into his eyes as she half mumbled, "Thank you for helping us."

The boy blinked for a moment as if he hadn't expected a thank you from either of the mages as some strange emotion flickered over his face before he shrugged, turning around. "Yeah, well, I only did it because you two would owe me a favor later. Consider it done. Now let's go, tell your teammate that."

"A 'favor', huh?" Rae looked faintly amused, seeing through the boy's blatant lie as she was an experienced liar as well. She walked a little faster to catch up to the boy, motioning to Alucard and their driver to come along. They walked down the jungle path in silence for a while before the sound of a muffled thump made them stop. The two turned around to see an annoyed Alucard help the driver up. The man must have tripped over one of the large tree roots that lined the floor of the jungle.

Rae walked over to them, noting that the boy followed close behind. "Is he okay?"

"Sprained his ankle." Alucard mumbled, his eyes narrowed and face pulled down into a scowl at the inconvenience.

"I can probably make a puppet to carry him if you have time…" Rae said thoughtfully. It would deplete her magic, which was already low, but it seemed to be the only method they had. Alucard himself could barely stand, and although he showed no sign of his weakness she was his teammate long enough to tell the tiniest actions which signalled something else. And she, being mostly reliant on her puppets, wasn't strong enough physically to carry a man for what must be at least five more miles to the next town.

"No need." The boy bent down, grabbing hold of the man's legs with his arms and instructed him, "Wrap your arms around my neck." The man did so, and the boy got up relatively easily with the man on his back.

"Just for a favor, eh?" Rae asked as the three continued down the dirt road. The boy gave no reply, although the twitch of his mouth was enough to indicate that he felt somewhat annoyed at the girl's persistence at his excuse. Rae jolted as her teammate spoke from behind them.

"What's your name?" Alucard's piercing gaze turned towards the boy. He had not met someone in a long time who could defeat as many strong enemies like he could. Perhaps he would be a worthy opponent if they ever sparred in a duel.

"Eh? Uriah."

Seeing that Alucard was going to make no further move introducing themselves, Rae sighed and gestured towards her teammate and then towards herself. "His name's Alucard, my name's Rae."

"A pleasure."

The conversation faded back into silence, and all three ambulatory people did not find any reason to communicate with the other. The sky was quickly getting dark, but at last they finally made it to the town Uriah had been leading them to. Before doing anything else, they brought the driver to the local clinic, where the man thanked them over and over for saving him before they moved on. They made their way to the local inn, where a nice looking elderly lady checked them in for two rooms. Rae managed to get the Lacrima working again and told the rest of their teammates where they were staying before logging off again.

"Well, this is my stop. See you." Uriah turned around, about to walk off as Alucard and Rae exchanged glances.

"Wait!" Rae called out, and the black haired teen stopped in his tracks. Her voice hurried as she sped through her offer. "Well, since you helped us, I think the least we can do is treat you to a drink, right? Don't worry about the cost, I have connections."

Uriah hesitated for a moment, considering the offer while Alucard gave his teammate a glare as if to ask why he had to do something akin to social interaction. Rae added, "I deal in information broking. Surely there's something you want to figure out, for a mission maybe? After all, a strong mage such as yourself surely isn't unemployed."

That seemed to have reeled the mage in, and he glanced up at her and met her eyes for the first time. "...information?"

"Yep! So, let's go!" Rae paused for a moment, sneaking a glare at her teammate who was trying to sneak off. "And Alucard, social interaction is sometimes crucial for missions. Get over it, you're coming whether you like it or not."

So the three headed off again, blissfully unaware of the dangers of the town they had arrived in.

* * *

 **A/N: Hooray! Plot! And a new character introduction. This chapter was...gr...I can't write in Alucard's POV because I need more neutral narrators and rewrote it twice. Reading shoujo manga does not help when trying to write Fairy Tail fics-the first draft was a cliff scene. _Yes,_ that kind of cliff scene. (I've been shoujo-ified...)**

 **On a side note, I'm going to be a lot more busy so the updates might come a little slower like this chapter, so I apologize in advance.**

 **I hoped you enjoyed, because next chapter we're introducing several new characters. You've been warned.**


	7. Shopping Gone Wrong

Kei sighed, rubbing at his drooping eyes as he tried to keep himself from falling asleep as he walked through the bright streets of Malba City. It was daytime, and Iris had demanded for him to take a break from the bar and walk around the city for a change. He didn't understand what was wrong with sleeping: it was more useful of a past time than staring at visiting teammates.

The air was fresh, and the Sun was warm. It faintly smelled like jasmine, probably from the long vines of jasmine trailing off the Infinite Bloom apartment buildings that he was nearing. Civilians bustled about, some women heading out with baskets, probably to go to the marketplace and get the freshest deals. Children giggled, racing each other or playing games like jump rope. He could hear birds chirping: the smallest signs of wildlife in the city.

Kei probably should have been paying more attention to where he was going, but he was too busy taking in all the subtle signs of life in Malba City.

It was then when he was barrelled into by a girl with long blonde hair. He blinked for a few moments, his emerald green eyes widening slightly as he realized it was his reckless teammate, Grace. "Yo," he acknowledged. "What are you doing around here, Grace?"

"Same to you, aren't you always acting like the guard dog for the bar?" Grace questioned, and although the question seemed out of place he knew she meant nothing harmful from the statement. Grace was always too reckless for her own good, and she never stopped to think about what she was saying. Under his gaze, Grace shifted her weight to her other foot as she rubbed her head sheepishly. "Ehehe, sorry. Didn't mean it like that."

"Taking a break. It's rare to see you not hopping from tree branch to tree branch in the Mikage forest." Kei looked faintly amused, shrugging it off. His teammate, Grace Arc, was a 'wild' girl if he ever saw one. From what he had picked up a large part of her life she had been living amongst wolves.

He, Rae, Michael, and another mage in the guild named Marcus had been a team a long time ago because they were the mages who had been in the guild for the longest time in their generation, and they had been tasked with collecting new recruits. Grace had been one of them, along with Mars. She had simply appeared one day while they were in one of the towns recruiting potential mages, saying she had heard about their mage life from some campers, and wanted to join the guild.

Of course, Kei would never pry past that. Nearly all of Infinite Bloom's mages, present or past, had dark secrets that they'd reveal when they'd feel like that.

"Yep. I'm usually there ta' collect herbs for Ames, but since he's on a mission I got nothing to do." A little bit of a country accent slipped out of her mouth, but Grace seemed unperturbed. "Don't suppose there's anything interesting going on here?"

"Team 1's gotten a botched mission and Team 3's been attacked at night by hired assailants. I think both of them have it covered though." Kei answered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose it's about time for our team to head out on another mission, eh?"  
"Sure, I'll come, if you manage to get Isaac to stop training." Grace scoffed, her skeptical tone obviously showing what she thought of the probability of _that_ happening. Isaac was one of their other teammates, and he valued training and skill over nearly everything rather than himself.

Kei was certain that their teammate was off training at the moment, as well to become stronger. It wasn't that their teammate was an idiot: oh no, Isaac knew when to push his limits and when not to. He was nearly the exact opposite: serious, self-centric, and inexplicably averse to small children especially little girls. (They had found out the last fact after a mission of guarding a young heiress: Isaac had refused to meet the little girl's eyes and instead assigned himself look out duty, leaving the rest of the team to deal with the spoilt girl's wishes.)

"Hm. I suppose that won't be happening for a while then." Kei stared at something in the distance as he squinted, vaguely making out the shape of Jakkura, their guild's Bomb Mage. Most of the guild members tended to shy away from the man because of his more sadistic manner, but Kei found him ideal company and all the workers in the bar including Rae, Iris, and Mars didn't seem to mind his presence. He was a lot less loud than the majority of their guildmates, so Kei could sleep peacefully in his presence. "Jakkura!"

The dark brown haired man turned around, scowling. Jakkura, bluntly put, looked strange. His nose looked like that of a canine's, he had a tail protruding from his lower back, and had fang-like teeth. Nearly all of the people in the guild had at least once asked the man about his appearance, and never would he answer the same thing.

He turned around, and recognizing both Kei and Grace he gave them a cool look. In some ways Jakkura reminded Kei of Isaac except more...cruel when it came to his enemies.

"Jakkura, has your team been going on any missions?" Kei asked, smoothly starting a conversation as Grace looked at him as if he was crazy.

"...we just returned from one. Bringing a document from the King to the Council." Jakkura answered, not at all inclined to talk. Kei sweatdropped at the lack of words but didn't press on the issue as he nodded in understanding.

"Ya' need to talk some more." Grace scoffed, and it was sort of surprising for Kei's teammate to be remarking on it. "Being an iceblock won't help on missions." Kei could almost hear himself lecturing Isaac about the same thing and supposed he must have somewhat rubbed off on the wild girl.

"Hi!" A blonde girl with attentive electric blue eyes suddenly popped up from behind Kei, and he flinched as he moved away from the girl a few steps. He took in the figure and recognized the person to be his teammate, Ava Ferrier. She was wearing a white and yellow dress tied at the waist with a blue ribbon that reminded him of her eyes, along with white boots and gloves. Ava was...eccentric. She reminded him of Rae in a way except more creepy and lawbreaking. Ava liked to get under people's skin, and that was precisely what she did to their teammates. The woman smirked at him, as if she could see through his thoughts. "Miss me?"

"Hell no," Grace sputtered. The rash girl was easily taunted by their conniving teammate, although usually Ava went easier on her compared to most strangers. Kei shuddered whenever he thought of the first time they'd met. She had said something about several ghosts haunting him and went on to do an exorcism. He didn't question her.

"Hm...I see." The girl's mouth twitched as she turned to Jakkura, grinning darkly. "I'm going to figure out the story behind your appearance, you know. It's been a running bet between me, Chase, Mars, and Rae. We're trying to see which one of us can crack you first."

"They can try." Jakkura grumbled.

"So...why don't we go shopping?" Kei intervened, and he regretted his excuse as Ava brightened while Jakkura and Grace scowled simultaneously. Thank God Jakkura wasn't on his team: he didn't think he could handle it. Then again, Isaac was more than enough to handle as well.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on the point of view, they were near Chancellor Street, which was basically the shopping district for all of Malba City. It had all kinds of stores and there were plenty of smaller roads and alleyways that winded from the main street that held even more stores, and even though he had been living with Infinite Bloom for eight years (he had arrived when he was twelve, and now Kei was twenty) he was sure he still hadn't explored all of the shops.

"Then, can I pick a store first?" Ava brightened as Kei gave her a hesitant nod that sealed their doom. The woman brought them to a creepy looking shop with tattered curtains hanging from the windows and a creaky old wooden door. A single human skull was on display through the window, along with some strange trinkets like dreamcatchers. She turned around and gave them a bright smile that seemed to unnerve Grace and not even faze Jakkura, judging by their reactions.

"Er...Ava, why don't you go to your exorcist shops some other time?" Kei suggested, trying to keep as civilized and polite as possible. Behind him, Grace nodded adamantly in agreement.

"Nonsense! Come on in!" Ava cheered. The blonde haired girl opened the creaky door, looking right at home as through the doorway Kei could see glowing and floating items.

He should have slept in this morning.

* * *

Several stores later, Jakkura found himself in possibly the most visited destination for Infinite Bloom mages rather than the bar.

...also known as the bookstore. Infinite Bloom mages were, surprisingly, bookworms. Ava had immediately drifted over towards the mystery section they usually could find most of the members of Team 3 (Iris, Michael, Raiden, and Riley) at. It wasn't very surprising considering her love of dark things. She got along fairly well with people like Rae and Raiden. Kei had gone over to the music theory books, and Grace towards the adventure and survival section.

Jakkura wondered if there were any books on explosives when a timid hand tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see a tiny woman with mousy brown hair and hazel eyes. The girl was an employee, and she fiddled with the hem of her skirt as she asked, "Sir, do you need help finding anything?"

"...yes."

After a few moments of extremely awkward silence in which the girl flinched under Jakkura's gaze before asking hesitantly, "What are you looking for?"

"Explosives." He deadpanned with no social grace whatsoever as the girl's eyebrows jumped as she bit her lip thoughtfully.

"We should have some in the engineering section. It's popular among a lot of your guildmates." The girl added, and Jakkura gave her a suspicious glare that made her shrink back, and he took pleasure in the flash of fear in her eyes that had shone through for a moment.

"How do you know I'm part of a guild? I don't come here."

"W-well, your companions have Infinite Guild guild marks on them, so I just assumed-" the woman stammered as Kei appeared from behind her, putting a hand on the employee's shoulder and steadying her as he kept a bright smile on his face.

"Now, Jakkura, don't go scaring innocent civilians for no reason. It doesn't help our guild's reputation," Kei chided, the ginger haired man holding a music theory book under his arm, adjusting the collar of his pineapple printed shirt. After they had finished with Ava's selected store, they had been forced by Kei to try getting some other clothes rather than their usual outfits.

Jakkura couldn't see what was wrong with his brown bandana, striped tank top, and beige baggy pants as he found them comfortable and easy to maneuver in, but the result of the Illusion Mage's nagging was not pleasant to the eyes.

He had been forced to wear a _pink_ polo shirt which his guildmate claimed looked very manly on him along with nondescript black jeans. Ava and Grace had choked when they saw him walk out of the fitting rooms, but then again they were lucky enough to escape nearly unscathed with just their ridiculous rainbow colored boas and black sunglasses.

Jakkura was just waiting for someone to report them as suspicious figures. Considering he was a detective who often worked with the police, Raiden would probably be forced to bail them out, and Michael would be trailing behind him being the friend he was.

"Hn." Jakkura grunted, turning away as he moved towards the engineering section of the bookstore, which was labelled with a hanging sign. Kei and the employee didn't protest his leave. Easily enough he found an interesting looking book about other more unusual items he could use to create bombs in case he had to improvise with normal items.

"Oi! Jakkura, we're leaving!" Grace called and the man twitched, finally glad the madness was over.

As the four walked back to the guild hall, they were interrupted by their Guild Communication Lacrimas, which only worked within a radius of 20 miles from Malba City, flickering to life. " _Team 3: Iris, Michael, Riley, Raiden, under attack by unknown assailant. Location: 5 miles south of Malba City, forest training grounds. Requesting immediate backup."_

Kei let out a subtle curse, motioning for Grace and Ava to follow him. He turned and gave a curt acknowledging nod to Jakkura before speaking into the Lacrima. " _Team 2: Kei, Grace, Ava, Isaac responding. Will rendezvous as soon as possible."_

And with that, the three took off running, fairly confident their last teammate would catch on to their movement and head to the scene as well as Jakkura continued to the guild hall to secure it.

* * *

Ava, despite being completely manipulative, sadistic, and somewhat antisocial, was hurrying to the scene as fast as she could. Kei and Grace were right beside her. Grace had summoned a wolf spirit on which she was riding on, and Ava turned to her and ordered, "Grace, you rush ahead. We don't know if they're in prominent danger, so it'd be best if you get on the scene as soon as possible. Kei, do you know where Isaac is?"

"No, but I can try to communicate with him," Kei replied. The ginger haired mage held up his Lacrima as Ava nodded an affirmative.

This was bad. As they turned the corner and whooshed past the guild's apartment buildings, Ava dropped her bag of mostly stolen items she had taken while they were shopping as she slipped on her gloves. " _Requip: Soul Lantern Staff."_

Her only weapon she used appeared in her hand, the lantern glowing faintly as she considered whether or not she should try summoning some spirits to help Grace, who was quickly disappearing out of her line of vision, but she ultimately decided against it.

Hopefully none of Team 3 would do anything stupid to offset their attacker, because she doubted she could run ten miles in two minutes. They'd just have to get there as soon as they could.

* * *

Raiden groaned, having been knocked into the side of the cliff which had been made of entirely rock. He managed to get himself partially of the rubble, his obsidian black eyes searching for where his teammates were. His legs were still completely covered by giant boulders, and all Raiden could hope was that they weren't completely crushed.

They had been training on the forest training grounds which many of the Infinite Bloom mages used for group training when their enemy had quite literally crashed their training session. Their enemy was a single man: clad in sheer black with a faceplate and hood covering his face. The man showed no remorse as he knocked Iris into the forest so hard she broke several trees and literally created a crater as he threw Riley to the ground.

Both of them had been knocked unconscious on the impact, judging from the lack of sound, and Raiden just hoped they weren't severely injured.

Michael had re-equipped into his Hero Soul: Justicar but the man had emitted dark lightning around the small training grounds, effectively paralyzing them all.

"W-who are you?" Raiden coughed, trying to see through the dust.

The man sounded faintly amused as he took a step closer to Raiden. "Me?" He let out a cruel laugh as he leaned close enough to look Raiden straight in the eye as Raiden tried with no avail to escape. "I am you, but to be more precise you are me and I am not you."

"What are you saying?" Michael asked cautiously as the pink haired mage struggled to make his way to his feet. Faintly behind him his Lacrima flared to life, with Kei's voice frantically trying to say something. None of them made a move to grab it, although even if they tried they couldn't.

The man tapped a finger to his chin as he stared down Raiden. A smirk crawled on his face as he held out two golden coins, one in his right palm and one in his left. "Well, Peter," he addressed Raiden and while Michael's eyebrows crinkled in confusion Raiden twitched, his muscles tightening. "What can you tell me about these two coins?"

"Don't call me-"

" _What can you tell me about these two coins?"_ The man asked again, this time his tone much more forceful as he nearly shoved the coins in Raiden's face.

"They're almost the same, but one is fake, and one is real." Raiden scowled.

A cruel smile made its way on his enemy's lips. "Good. Now let's see what happens to them over time, alright?" And before Raiden could make any further motion, the man crushed both coins, opening his closed fists to reveal the real coin, still perfectly intact, and the fake coin, which had been completely crushed into bits.

The message couldn't have been more clearer, and even though Michael was looking on with a confused expression, Raiden's face tightened.

"The real one survives, and the fake dies. That's how we are like, Peter. No matter the setting or timing, the outcome will always be the same. You, right at my feet, just like now." The man's tone grew mocking as a sneer overtook his face. "You are an imperfection, a clone, a replica of who can't perform to the same level as the 'original', me."

Michael was shooting Raiden weird looks, and although he wanted to turn to his teammate and _explain_ , Raiden couldn't feel anything but deep, dark hatred for the man in front of him as his body shook with silent anger. " _You…_ "

"Now, you wouldn't want your teammates here to get hurt, would you?"

At that sentence, both Michael and Raiden tensed, prepared to do whatever it took to protect their teammates. Riley might be a little overly eccentric sometimes, and Iris could get a little too naive, but they were teammates. They were almost like a small, sort of well functioning _family_.

And neither Raiden nor Michael would allow anyone to take that away from them.

At their serious expressions the man laughed gleefully, his eyes dancing with mirth and cruel excitement. "I'm kidding, Peter. Don't make that ugly face." Raiden didn't deem it important enough to give the man a response.

"Don't you _dare_ touch them," Michael said quietly, and even though the pink haired mage was lying on the ground, barely able to look up, his tone was filled with silent power.

"Why would I care about those insignificant bugs? No, I'm afraid that our... _organization_ is much more interested in the secrets of your guild and the potential it has. After all, what other guild can claim that they're the dogs of Fiore's royal family?"

" _Silence_. None of our mages below S-Class know of this." Raiden hissed, somehow finding the courage to voice himself.

"All the more reason for them to find out, no?" The man couldn't help but smirk at Raiden and Michael's tenure stances that screamed for him to leave. Suddenly, there was a large sound of a flare being set off as his eyes trailed upwards to see red smoke being blown by the wind. "Ah, so impatient. It seems as if I'll have to leave. Enjoy your peace while you have it, filthy mages."

With that, the man vanished with the crackling sound of thunder and flash of black lightning, leaving the clearing empty with stunned silence in its wake.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, shoot. I didn't realize I neglected this story for a while, lol. School and stuff. But thanks to _AHarvin_ for reminding me, and _ab918_ for our wonderful first villain that's going to mix into the plot. Surprisingly a lot of the OCs's pasts can be connected if I try to twist some stuff. With that said, there might be _tiny_ details that might be a little twisted from the History sections but at the most, just like a name of an organization or something.**

 **And so eventually I'll be accepting submissions for villains once more info is revealed about the plot and what exactly's going on, but if you really want to submit a villain just PM me and I'll supply a little bit to get you started along with the OC form. Just note that I try to make it that no evil person doesn't have a reason for their evilness, and there _might_ be ships between villains and heroes if the plot allows it. But meh, who knows? (Just saying, female villains are awesome and appreciated.)**

 **Don't worry about that now, though. This stuff is far into the future.**

 **I'm also having ship problems. Like, _idk what to do there are too many ships_ problems so if anyone wants to discuss their ships through reviews or PMs or something, I'm up to it.**

 **...**

 **Okay, so basically: I'm sorry for not updating, thank you readers, reviewers (especially, I love you guys~), favorite-ers, and followers for your amazing support, and expect more soon (including plot and character introductions, finally)** **.**

 **Thank you, again for supporting me!**

 **Until next time~**


	8. Average Day

**A/N: Le gasp. Me, updating sort of regularly? A miracle! I apologize for the sudden overwhelming background information about Uriah in the flashback but there wasn't really a place I could fit it in without breaking the flow.**

* * *

 _They had entered the bar, and immediately Rae had pulled aside the manager and whispered a few things and earned them a free pass to all the drinks. They were now all sitting on the stools near the counter, a shot glass placed in front of each of them._

" _I don't remember a lot of my past." Uriah admitted, brushing a stray lock of black hair behind his ears as his golden eyes met Rae's, a rare sense of honesty beneath them. Next to him, Alucard shifted. Rae had purposefully positioned her teammate so he would sit between them, forcing the man to do something akin to social interaction. "I'm...looking for someone. My sister."_

 _There was something to his voice that indicated Uriah wasn't the kind of person to admit personal things like this very often, and that made both Alucard and Rae stay silent as the powerful mage continued. "I'm not sure how much you can get out of this, but she should be around 17 by now. She has blue eyes and can sometimes be rash."_

" _Any other details?" Rae pressed, nodding towards the bartender to pour them all a shot. "Name? Occupation? Mage?"_

" _...I can't remember. I'm sorry."_

 _Both Rae and Alucard let out a sigh at the same time, the two looking at each other and blinking for a moment before shrugging it off. Rae crossed her legs primly as she downed a shot with the ease of a professional (only Jakkura had broken her record for drinking alcohol), Uriah mirroring her movements. He felt tired, a feeling that Uriah hadn't felt in a long time._

 _Uriah wasn't sure exactly why he had followed the two mages after the battle, for before he had reasoned he was just going to drop them off and be on his merry way. He had been planning to look for his sister farther up North, considering he had searched most of the East coast of Fiore. But something about the two sparked the need for companionship he hadn't felt for a long time._

 _Uriah had been wandering for a while, and briefly he wondered when he had last had actual human contact that wasn't out of necessity. Probably the little girl with blonde hair from Magnolia that he had saved._

" _We'll do our best," Rae concluded, Alucard shooting her a glance that obviously spelled that he didn't like the thought of being included in the favor. Eyes glinting, she leaned forward. "Now how about another shot?"_

* * *

After a long and tedious night of trying to coax Alucard into conversation and trying to get Uriah, who seemed to have some sort of amnesia and couldn't recall certain parts of his past, to figure out what his sister's name had been so she could search for the girl as thanks, Rae was utterly exhausted. It didn't help that she had somewhat of a hangover, even with her long history with alcohol. That was why when she saw the missing three members of her team, all assembled in the inn room she had rented privately _just for her_ , she supposed the urge to scream and throttle them was justified.

"What...the...hell are you all doing in here?" Rae groaned, her golden eyes flickering to the door which she was sure she had locked. Even on her most drunk nights (and those were rare, being a bar waitress who had built up a tolerance to alcohol) she always locked the door after entering.

"Yo sunshine, miss us?" Chase's sunny smile was not deterred as she threw the closest object, which was a pillow, at him. Her teammate tilted his head to the left, aptly avoiding humiliating himself by being hit by a pillow. Rae's eyes moved upwards to see a both concerned and sleep deprived Ames give her a sheepish wave and a tired looking Mars gave a halfhearted nod.

"Oh, just wait until I properly wake up Alucard…" Rae muttered darkly as she gave Chase the most withering look she could. The mechanic had the humanity to at least look somewhat sheepish as he let out a hesitant, 'sorry?'.

" _You'd better be sorry!"_

At the loud scream, all three boys flinched visibly as Rae breathed in once before breathing out. She had to stay calm and patient...calm and patient... _screw that_. She glared at Chase again, the boy holding up his hands innocently. They were at a somewhat standstill. Ames and Mars were standing in the middle of the doorway while Chase had literally crept up to the bedside to further piss off his teammate.

Sometimes Rae wondered what had happened to their guild's common sense.

Soon, there was a knock on the door signalling that Alucard and Uriah, who had been in the other room next door, had heard the commotion. Ames opened the door, looking outside to see a very pissed off Alucard and exhausted looking Uriah.

As Alucard's eyes swept over the scene, taking in the fact that their missing teammates were inside the room, they landed on Chase, who started sweating immensely as he backed up a few steps, hiding behind Mars who quickly paled as he realized he was being used as a shield against Alucard's immense wrath. His face darkened as he took a step closer, then another, and then another.

Behind him, Ames called out weakly, "Alucard, please don't incapacitate our teammate too much. We still need him." This statement was ignored by the raven haired man as he closed in on his prey, who was quickly growing more and more pale.

Chase laughed nervously, holding up his hands. "H-hey, Alucard, you know I didn't mean it right? It was just a harmless prank-"

" _Harmless?"_ Alucard and Rae echoed, both of them narrowing their eyes as Mars took advantage of Chase's distraction as he moved out of the line of fire.

"Uriah, stay out of the way." Rae demanded darkly. "I'm going to gouge out his eyes and cut off his limbs before throwing them out of the window for what he did." Out of the corner of his eye, Mars could see the boy he didn't recognize nod apprehensively. Wisely, the boy stayed out of the situation, standing next to Mars.

"I'll join you." Alucard muttered under his breath, too incensed at the moment to even stay silent. It seemed like Ames was the only one who looked like he might have intervened, but one glare from Alucard was enough for the Support Mage to stop.

Other occupants of the inn would wonder long afterwards about the loud, seemingly unending scream coming from one of the rooms.

* * *

Because they had ample time before they were due back to the guild, Team 1 (along with Uriah, who Rae introduced to the rest of their team) decided to explore the town, which was apparently named Kunugi. It was about three quarters of the way from Oshibana Town and Clover Town, and from the looks of it most of the population were civilians.

Ames walked alongside Mars with a little apprehension as he casted a glance at a silent, smug looking Alucard every once in awhile. He exchanged glances with Mars, who looked equally disturbed. Rae and Uriah had stayed behind at the inn to watch over Chase, so it was just the three of them at the moment.

"Is it just me, or is this town..." Mars trailed off, his eyes noticing the way most of the citizens shied away from them while avoiding their eyes.

"Suspicious." Ames confirmed, noting that whenever he met the gaze of one of the citizens they would flinch before looking away hastily. "They seem...tired."

"Drugs," Alucard said suddenly as Ames and Mars quickly turned their attention to their teammate. Looking somewhat annoyed that he had to elaborate, he said (with as few words as possible), "There's a lot of drug addicts here. I recognize the symptoms."

"How?" Mars asked, tilting his head slightly.

"...I've seen it while travelling."

Mars and Ames didn't question it. A lot of their S-Class mages went _travelling_ a lot, and would frequently just abandon the team and leave for a few months, coming back with an even more mysterious aura. It was just an unspoken rule at Infinite Bloom for them not to talk about it.

They were cut off by the sounds of yelling coming from a house, along with the sound of breaking glass. The three hurried to the direction of the scene and were surprised to see several men jeering at a woman and a small boy who was cowering behind the woman's dress. They stood idly for a few moments, observing the scene.

"Do you think it's alright just to _take_ our resources without paying for them? It costs a real good amount of money to import these goods from Bosco, you know. Especially with the high rates that we need to pay to get our hands on them." A bulky, raven haired man sneered as he leaned close, toned muscles on his arms crossing over his chest. He turned to the man next to him. "What do you think, Raymond?"

The woman's eyes grew larger as she frantically bowed. "W-we're sorry, we'll pay. But my husband can't work in his state right now, just please give us another-"

"Like hell we're going to wait another _month_." The man's companion, this one with narrowed blue eyes snarled as his hand inched towards the gun to his side.

The third man, the tallest and strongest looking of them all, put a hand up and without speaking a word silenced them with just the gesture. The three men seemed to share a silent conversation before the blue eyed one turned away from the leader, muttering, "Tch. Soft as ever, Deborah."

Without a warning, the first man lashed out with a whip, striking the woman and making her cry out in pain. Behind her, the small boy who had previously been silent scowled and stepped in front of his mother protectively. "Hey, don't touch my mom!"

"And you think you can stop us from touching her?" Raymond, the second man, asked clearly amused as he leered at the boy, leaning forward.

The boy's legs clearly trembled, but he stuck his chin out proudly, boldly meeting the man's gaze. "Dad said that I needed to take care of mom because he's not able to."

Two of the men guffawed, their (presumably) leader staying still.

Ames, Alucard, and Mars had watched enough.

"It's technically not part of our mission, but since we already screwed up and all, why don't we just screw up some more?" Mars suggested casually, the only sign of his anger being a slight flash in his eyes as Ames sent him a look before pursing his lips anxiously.

"It'll get us in trouble, and we don't know how deep of a problem we might be getting into." Ames warned. Mars knew that the only reason the compassionate boy wasn't jumping out to save the mother and son himself was because Ames was worried about his and Alucard's safety, along with Uriah and their other two team members left at the inn.

"Alucard and I can take care of this." Mars smiled at Ames confidently. "You go and figure out whatever's the matter with their father and make sure that the woman's not too badly hurt."

"If you say so." Ames still looked a little unconvinced, but he trusted his teammate's judgement. He looked at Alucard to make sure their teammate was up to it, but the man's gaze was solely transfixed on the little boy, his finger twitching as if wanting to summon a weapon and skewer the men through. Perhaps he had a protective urge for children? Although Ames was able to read many people, Alucard was one of the few that was hard to pinpoint exactly.

For example, he knew that even though Mars was a kind, light hearted, and modest person to most people, he was the kind of person Ames felt would sacrifice anything for his friends. Rae was the kind of person who, even though she acted shallow, had too much weighing on her mind. Chase was the kind of person who most people would dismiss to just be a joker (which he was, admittedly) but was also extremely smart and perceptive to when people were down or needed to let go of their problems. Alucard, Ames knew, had several different layers. He was a calm and blunt person, yet showed all sorts of excitement on the battlefield. Sometimes there would be moments where Ames would catch him staring off in the distance, eyes glazed as he remembered his past.

Infinite Bloom mages were almost never how they first appeared, especially Ames's team in his opinion. He felt that if he wasn't there to be the voice of reason, they would have already died from pissing off some strong enemy.

"Hey!" Mars called, striding over to the scene as all of the people turned to him. Ames noticed several curious bystanders quickly moved away, wary of the situation escalating and them being caught in the crossfire. Mars crossed his arms over his chest. "What gives you the right to treat a lady like that?"

Alucard moved to back their teammate up, not even bothering to summon a weapon as a dark aura began to surround him. Ames was a backline unit, being a healer, so as the men were distracted by his teammates' arrivals he hurried over to the woman, asking concernedly, "Are you alright?"

The woman nodded, withholding a grimace as she fingered the red mark from where the whip struck her. "It's nothing serious, thank you. But you boys shouldn't get involved in this right now. Provoking them will do nothing but harm to this town and its occupants."

Ames winced. "We're sorry. But we couldn't just stand around while they were hurting you." He glanced around the street, which was mainly empty save Alucard and Mars who were trash talking with the enemies. "Might I inquire what the subject of disagreement was?"

"...I'm telling you, please don't ask. There's too many different variables going on, and I'd hate to get you involved." The woman warned.

"Please. My teammates and I are professional mages from Infinite Bloom, and I'm sure that we can help in some way." Ames's plead seemed to move the woman somewhat, and she sighed, muttering under her breath about how she warned him.

"This town is really being run by the organization those men are a part of. They had introduced some drugs, saying that it was medicine that could cure any illness. By the time we realized they were addictives, most of the town had already become addicted. And without a continuous supply of drugs, anyone who took them loses function of their body." The woman explained, lowering her eyelids slightly. "My husband is one of those people."

Ames murmured his condolences as they stood still for a moment before he prompted her, "Organization?"

"They call themselves the Watchers, and I'm sure that drug trafficking isn't the only illegal business they run. The Magic Council and the royal family turn a blind eye to it as they have enough on their hands establishing order and stopping dark guilds, but I'm also sure the Watchers must have some connections in there. The organization is too wide spread around Fiore for it to be stopped, and from what I've heard they're present in a few other neighboring countries as well, but definitely not as much compared to Fiore."

"How do you know all of this?" Ames questioned.

The woman looked around to see if anyone was listening, but only her son and Ames were in ear range to hear what she said. She lowered her voice. "...my brother in law was introduced into the organization a few years ago, before they were as widespread and powerful as they are now. He kept in contact with me for the first two years he was in that organization, saying that by the time he realized what they were doing he was too far in and if he tried leaving, they'd kill him. I haven't heard from him for the past four years or so."

She hesitated for a moment before adding quietly, "But most of this is common information among the common people. Mages don't really know because they frankly don't really deal with anything that doesn't have to do with their mission or magic. Ask around, and you can find anything."

Ames digested the information silently for a moment. It was true, what she said about mages. They mainly dealt with the magic world, but sometimes Ames forgot that most of Fiore's inhabitants were normal people without magic. Sure, he had grown up in a normal, close-knit community with regular people, but by the time he was 8 he was already introduced into the Magic world.

And there was no going back, once you discovered you were a mage.

Ames turned to see how Mars and Alucard were doing, and to his relief both of his teammates were still unharmed.

" _Neco."_ Mars chanted, an orb of energy appearing in his hand as he slammed it into the ground, causing the ground to shake for a moment before a giant tidal wave appeared, heading towards the enemies. " _Neptune's Wave."_

Ames moved quickly, already used to the routine. " _Barrière."_ A translucent blue barrier appeared, shielding several of the houses that would have gotten caught in the impact of the wave as he concentrated, making sure not to let the wave reflect back to Mars. They had learned through trial and error that if Ames's barrier was too strong, Mars's attack would reflect right back at him, while if it was too weak they would have to deal with an angry Master and several fines covering the property damage they had incurred during the battle.

Mars gave a quick acknowledging nod of thanks towards Ames as Alucard murmured, " _Storm Break"_ as he slashed through the air, a blue blade of electricity narrowly missing one of the rapidly paling enemies.

"Don't kill them, Alucard." Ames chided.

Alucard shrugged, muttering, "Not my fault if they're weaklings."

"I'll try to put them to sleep," Mars said quickly as he pulled out his flute, placing it to his lips as he began to play a soft tune. Ames felt his own eyes begin to droop as he shook off the drowsy effect, used to the feeling. Alucard remained unaffected, probably because he was strong and was often exposed to it during battle. All three men, however, were beginning to fall asleep as the two weaker minions dropped to the ground, their bodies limp.

The leader, the strongest of the three, managed to narrowly avoid dropping completely unconscious as he fell to the ground, covering his ears as he struggled to stay awake. "Damn you...mages…our comrades...will...come...for..."

His body grew limp.

The clearing was silent for a moment as the woman muttered a startled "oh, my". Then the spell of silence was broken by her son, who had been watching the battle the whole time awestruck.

"Hey! You guys!" The little boy pointed at Alucard, and then towards Mars and Ames. Behind him his mother gasped and said something about his manners. The boy blushed and fidgeted under all three mages' stares as he looked towards the ground and muttered boyishly, "Thank you for helping my mom and I."

Mars' smile grew as he bent down to look at the kid. In his past, he had been a useless coward who just stood by as people got hurt, but now he was strong enough to make a difference. Even if it was just one life, Mars was happy to help. "You're welcome. You should always try helping people, okay? Don't be like those bad guys."

"Okay!" The boy beamed as any leftover tension from the battle broke. Ames broke out in a small smile and out of the corner of his eye he saw Alucard's face loosen just a little bit as he stood behind Ames.

Sure, there might be repercussions in the future, but at the moment everything was peaceful, and that was enough for them all.

A thought suddenly occurred to Ames as he turned around and offered, "If you'd like, my team will be staying here for a few more days. Is it alright if I try to examine your husband to try to decipher the drug?"

The woman's eyes were still a little wary, but she gave him a weary, thankful smile. "Of course. I can't thank you for doing this for us."

"We should bring these guys back to the inn to question them," Alucard said as he slung two of the men over each of his shoulders, Mars opting to carry the last one.

Mars nodded. "Good point. But for now...a job well done?"

"Well, I can't really say that." Ames gave a shaky laugh. "But this day's been plenty eventful, and we've been able to help people. That's enough for me."

After exchanging their goodbyes, the three of them heading back to the inn where their teammates were waiting and retired for the night.

...after all, they'd need their strength for what was to come.

* * *

 **A/N: Ah, yes. Wrapping up tiny pieces of plot and connecting stuff. Gotta love it. Oh, and is anyone catching the _Fairy Tail Zero_ references I've made in the story thus far? I think there's been at least two, and one in this chapter lol. And adding in character dynamics and reflecting a little on why I chose the teams to be teams.**

 **Are you all still here? I don't know if school's been hectic or anything but I'm kind of worried about the lack of response last chapter haha. But I suppose that's because of my lack of updates. (Okay, I admit it. I'm a total review whore.)**

 **So...back to Team 3's battle aftermath and Team 2's retrieval of their guildmates next chapter. All the teams will get their spotlight and part in the plot eventually, so even though this may seem like it's focusing on Team 1 and Team 3 at the moment, expect Team 4 to be introduced soon (officially) and Team 2 to go on a mission soon.**

 **...and we all know how Fairy Tail missions end up.**

 **So...for this story there will be a mainplot. There will be subplots. All of these will tie together to one gigantic plot, and then the story will be finish. I honestly don't know how long this will be, but I have tons of plans for at least seven more chapters planned out. And lots of plot details coming from the unnamed lady. Yeah. Haha I use so many unnamed characters to move along the plot.**

 **Anyways, thank you for reviewing, favorite-ing, following, and reading!**

 **Review please~**

 **Until next time!**


	9. Conflict

Ava was not a happy camper. She had arrived at the scene of the distress call Team 2 had signalled from, alongside a somewhat tired looking Kei, to find the enemy gone.

Grace, who had rushed ahead, and Isaac, their other teammate who probably had been training somewhere around the area, were standing among the rubble. The training ground was completely destroyed: the rocky boulders that were used for agility training had been crushed, the cliff that was next to it had an Iris-shaped imprint, the ground was uneven, and most of all, the air radiated dark energy. Kei moved to help Iris, who Ava spotted in the cliff. Isaac was currently staring at a frightened, ashen-faced Raiden. Michael seemed the most well off out of all of them, and he gave Ava a weary nod as he laid on the ground.

Ava quickly found the figure she was searching for and ran through a path of broken trees. Her usual mischievous face dropped as she rushed forward. "Shoot, Riley!" The blonde haired girl rushed to her friend, who was slumped against a tree in a rather unnatural looking position. She quickly checked her friend's vitals. Luckily, Infinite Bloom required their mages to have some kind of knowledge on first aid because their world simply wasn't safe. She wished that Team 1, with Ames, would return because her friend looked like she needed some major recuperation.

Ava listened for Riley's heartbeat and was relieved to find that it was still steady, despite whatever her friend had gone through.

"Ava, have you found Riley?" Kei called from back in the clearing where the others were. He had draped Iris's arms over his shoulders and was currently carrying her on his back.

"Yeah." Ava shifted, bending down and scooping Riley up, wobbling a little as she stood. "I'm coming." She walked back to the clearing. Isaac, without much sound, took Riley from her and threw the girl's unconscious body over his shoulder. Kei had probably put their teammate up to it considering she knew that Isaac was not the kind of person to do that normally. Grace had summoned a giant boar for Raiden and Michael, who were both conscious but not responding to the girl's chattering.

"Ya' guys sure got beat up." Grace commented, not holding back her opinion as Ava and Kei almost facepalmed. Grace was always a rash girl. "Who could be strong 'nuf to beat ya?"

"A man," Raiden's voice was faint as he stared at his fists, clenched so tightly that they were turning an unhealthy tone of white. "He did it."

"Who?" Kei asked.

"From what I suspect, he's part of an organization. They ran..." Raiden coughed, and Team 2 waited patiently for him to recover. "...experiments."

Kei and Ava exchanged glances. "What kind of experiments?" Ava pressed, her electric blue eyes glinting as Raiden visibly flinched.

"Illegal. Bad. Dark." The Lightning Mage began taking deep, hurried breaths as Kei put a hand up, stopping his teammates from pressing any further.

"That's enough," Kei said firmly. "We can talk more once we get back to the Guild."

Everyone nodded.

* * *

"We need a healer." Grace burst through the doors of the guild, which they quickly located thanks to Kei. This time, the guildhall had moved directly in the heart of the Mikage forest, which made it sort of inconvenient for them to travel. Several of the adult mages, who were playing a card game while sitting around a round wooden table, looked up from Grace's outburst. "Team 3's hurt."

One of the older mages, a rather gutsy man named Eldrick who liked to reminisce about his team when he had been their age guffawed. "That gal Riley is our healer, dear. Well, I suppose Ames would do too but I heard his team's messed up on a mission. It's hard to find knowledgeable people in these parts, and even harder to find knowledgeable people who are willing to treat mages. They don't want any trouble from the Dark Guilds, ya' know."

Grace flushed indignantly as she fought down her temper. It only partially worked, and the next word that came out of her mouth had a little more venom in them. "So? If we don't have anyone, we can find someone. Anyways, two of them need medical attention right now."

Another mage, a gentle looking woman with sky blue hair, stood up. "We have a few spare beds in the back of the guildhall we usually use for guard duty. I know a bit, and I'm pretty sure we have medical supplies somewhere around here."

"I think they ran out," Kei added in helpfully. "Riley's kinda used them all up from all of the weird incidents she gets into." The girl was a trouble magnet who somehow managed to get in all sorts of usually life threatening incidents almost all the time. Raiden, who was like an older brother figure to her, had to often look out for her.

"Great." Ava, who was standing behind him, rolled her eyes. "Then we'll have to head back to Malba City."

"We can send somebody." Grace suggested cheerily as eyes turned to Kei and Ava. The two blinked.

"Why us?" They asked at the same time. When the two realized they had spoken at the same time, Ava threw a smirk at the boy while Kei resigned himself to the task. It was too much work to actually go against the majority.

"Just because if we send Isaac here," Grace jabbed a thumb at their teammate, who was currently checking to see if his weapon had gotten more dull after his training, "They'd be too scared to sell stuff. And plus I doubt I'd be of much help in the city."

Isaac, being a person who valued training, strength, and himself, was not the best guy to send on a shopping trip. Grace, having been raised in the wild and unused to the city, did not want to go on another shopping expedition. The city was too loud for her tastes, and she honestly preferred staying in the guildhall, which was in the middle of the Mikage Forest at the moment.

"Point taken. We'll go." Kei sighed.

"But don't blame me if Kei comes back mentally scarred," Ava added in, a small smirk on her face as the ginger haired boy twitched.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Grace scoffed. Although she wasn't as close to Ava as Riley, who was Ava's best friend and roommate back at the dorms, Grace and Ava got along fairly well, excluding the times when Ava tried messing with her (" _Damn it woman! Even though I was raised by wolves doesn't mean I don't know what that means!"_ ).

"Besides," Grace added dryly as she glanced over to Isaac. "You're going to leave me with Isaac, so I'll have enough on my hands."

"What's that?" Isaac's deep voice cut into their conversation. The black haired man's cold hazel eyes seemed to pierce straight into their soul. His hand was still on his blade and his body was still tense, as if he was expecting for them to be attacked at any moment. Despite a thin layer of sweat on his forehead that indicated that he (as usual) had been training for a long time, Isaac did not look winded in any way from the journey to the guild hall.

"Just accept the fact that you, along with Alucard and Jakkura, suck at natural interaction." Grace scoffed.

"Actually, I think that Alucard can be better given certain...circumstances. Especially with _his_ teammates. Jakkura's too sadistic and scares people off, while Isaac just really doesn't care about other people." Ava added helpfully.

Kei groaned, slapping his hand against his forehead. "Not helping."

Isaac gave him a look, to which Kei gave him a mysterious smile. It was a noncommittal action. Kei knew that if Grace provoked Isaac too much he wouldn't hesitate to beat her up. In the same instance, he also knew that the only reason Isaac hadn't abandoned their team yet was because it'd be useful for him to have a stock on some of the medical supplies Kei and Ava would bring back.

He gave Raiden and Michael both a quick pat on the back before turning to Ava, nodding his head. "Let's go shopping. Again."

* * *

As Isaac and Grace waited in the spare room at the back of the guild, they watched Raiden and Michael cautiously. Raiden had been silently fuming, his eyebrows creased in thought. Michael, however, sat silently.

"Hey...are you...alright?" Grace asked, her words slowly enunciated as if even saying them was a pain. Being the easily embarrassed person she was, it probably was quite an effort to speak those words. Michael glanced up, his eyes just the slightest bit darkened.

"...yes, thank you. It's just that the attack happened so fast, and I couldn't even _do_ anything…" Michael gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "I was completely immobile."

Neither of the other mages knew how to respond. Finally, seeing that Isaac was not going to give a response as it wouldn't really benefit him in any way, Grace decided to cheer up their guildmate. "Hey, at least y'all alive. What do ya' think would've happened if he decided to kill all of you?"

Her optimism was not shared by Michael. "...I couldn't protect them at all. No one needs a useless hero-"

"But you _weren't_ useless," Grace emphasized impatiently. "You're all alive right now, and that's all that matters."

Surprisingly, Isaac had decided to speak at that moment, his eyes flashing with something akin to understanding. Even though he was staring straight at Michael and Raiden, it seemed as if his mind was somewhere else entirely as he seemed to reminisce about something. "Accept defeat, and live. Live, and train, so that the next time you meet you are strong enough to defeat them."

"To _protect_ them," Grace corrected. She blushed under Michael and Isaac's gazes. "W-what? It's not that cheesy. Stop looking at me like that."

"It kind of is." Michael cracked a small smile as even Raiden, who had been silent the entire time gave them a crooked grin.

"Thanks for trying to cheer us up."

"Don't you _dare_ try to pull some self-sacrificial stuff on us," Grace warned, pointing at Raiden. "I know you, although maybe not as well as your teammates. You're probably blaming yourself 'cause that guy was after ya', right?"

Raiden clenched, his fists clenching as Michael turned to his friend worriedly. "Is this true?"

"...I was useless. He wanted me, and I should be strong enough to fight my own battles and not get you or Riley or Iris involved." Raiden's voice raised. "Because of _me,_ Riley is currently unconscious and Iris is barely _breathing_. I should be stronger than that!"

 _Slap._

There was a moment of stunned silence as Grace breathed heavily, her arm outstretched. Her long blonde hair that fell to her waist, previously tied in a ponytail, fell loosely in front of her face as she glared at Raiden. "Coward," she spat. "If you can't figure out why the Master put us into teams, then you don't deserve one."

" _Grace_ ," Michael said strongly, his eyes flashing. "Please don't say that about Raiden. He's just worried about us, that's all-"

"I'm going for a short walk." The infuriated girl muttered, whipping around and stomping out of the guild hall. The door of the makeshift infirmary shut with a bang.

"She's just a little frustrated right now, Raiden," Michael said after a moment of silence, turning to his teammate. "You know how Grace is. Easily provoked by everything. She didn't mean it."

Raiden did not answer.

* * *

It was not even forty minutes later when Kei and Ava came back in with the medical supplies, faces pale as they asked to speak to the Master.

They only replied with a small phrase:

 _"War has been declared on Fiore."_

* * *

 **A/N: I apologize if this chapter seems much more rushed compared to the past few chapters (when I get time, I'm probably going to go back and edit it some more...). The next chapter will probably still stay on Malba City to slow down the character intros and for the sake of the plot, so if you can't remember all of the characters that's fine because they'll be characterized more for the upcoming chapters. My schedule is going to get really busy for a while and my updating pace will slow a tiny bit, so I wanted to get this out asap to say that. :(**

 **I'm going to try my best to write, but yeeeaaah life. Reality hurts.**

 **On a different note, thank you for the encouraging reviews. :) They really do make my day, and even though that sounds cheesy I actually do jump up and down when I read them, haha~ Please do tell me if the characters are OOC because I want them to be...well, them. Yeah. Or if you expected them to jump in or do something at parts because my writing isn't perfect.**

 **Ooh, and plot. Lots and lots of plot ahead. Honestly, I have no idea how long this is going to be because I've planned out two major arcs with subplots. The characters are honestly so much fun to write and I didn't expect it to be this fun...whoops.**

 **Thank you for reading/following/favorite-ing/reviewing!**


	10. Team 4 on the Move

Grace was seething. Her golden hair whipping behind her, she stomped through the forest while muttering several obscenities towards her dearest guildmate Raiden. She didn't see the need for her fellow mages to blame themselves when others got hurt.

Shouldn't they have been trying to get stronger so they could properly protect their friends if they met the enemy again?

Her blue eyes widened as she realized she must have made her way near the city. There were sounds of explosions that nearly shook the earth itself, and thanks to her long years living with wolves she was able to detect the faint smell of sulfur in the air. The scent was vaguely familiar: after all, it was present whenever Jakkura was at the bar.

She cursed. What could go wrong _this_ time?

(Really, she shouldn't have been asking that. Infinite Bloom mages had a tendency to defying expectations when it came to unfortunate circumstances. Curse her luck.)

Grace quickly summoned a giant bear spirit, and although it looked somewhat translucent when she pressed her hand against its skin it stayed solid. Her magic wasn't perfect: after all, she wasn't fully trained in the magic after her...family's demise. She pushed the thought away, finding it too uncomfortable to deal with as she nimbly climbed on top of the bear and commanded it to take her into the city.

Perhaps taking a giant spiritual bear into the city wasn't the brightest thing in the world to do, but Grace was always known to be an impulsive but straight to the point person. Subtility, despite Isaac's nagging (" _You'll jeopardize the mission and make it harder on me-"_ ) and her other two teammates' exasperation, was never her strong point.

When she neared the East edge of the city she was surprised to see the outlines of several of her other guildmates.

Jakkura, the sadistic bomb mage, was setting off explosions left and right. He was smirking delightedly at the panicked cries of their enemies. Jakkura was a strange person, and even stranger looking. He had dark brown hair reaching down to his shoulders, and jutting from the top of his head were ears that resembled an animal's. His nose was small like a canine's (after all, Grace could definitely distinguish animal-like characteristics) and he even had pointed teeth and a furry tail.

Most dared not to question his appearance, sans Chase. Most of their guild's S-Class mages were not to be questioned with. Alucard, Jakkura, and Raiden were their three S-Class mages, although Grace was sure other talented mages who fit the requirement of S-Class would arrive.

Of course, the division between S, A, and even B class was not too discernable. After all, the magic world was just beginning to get organized and had created the classifications of mages only several years before. The only thing required for you to become an S-Class mage was to be recommended by several A or S class mages to the master and meet the guildmaster's approval.

Most of the mages at Infinite Bloom were A-Class, although they could probably have become S-Class if they wanted to. There were several reasons why they didn't. Some, like Kei, were simply too lazy to take on the additional responsibilities of being S-Class, like going on special missions. Others wanted to stay on their team, because usually S-Class mages were distributed evenly among the teams. Or, others liked it when their opponents underestimated them because of their class.

Grace could really list a multitude of reasons that she had gathered from talking with her other guildmates in between training. She wasn't sure why some like Isaac, who was too silent that she never got any information out of him, stayed A-Class but she supposed there were reasons.

Besides, their skills spoke for themselves.

"The hell?" She muttered under her breath as her muscles tensed, preparing to jump into the scene if there was any trouble. Her blue eyes narrowed as she searched for Jakkura's other teammates.

Rather than the bomb mage, Team 4 had several other people. Marcus, their de facto leader who was extremely smart and slightly charismatic, was protecting the citizens from any dangerous spells that managed to fly their way. Marcus was a Lightning Mage, like Raiden, and the two often worked together when their teams helped each other on a mission. There were two other members: Victoria and Gizma. Those two girls were born inventors, who loved to mess with trinkets and frequently went around with Chase creating inventions and whatnot.

Grace hopped over to Marcus's side. "What's going on?" She asked the Lightning Mage, eyes darting concernedly at Victoria, who was currently fending off one of their enemies with her hands, which had transformed into claws. Marcus had spiky black hair with gold highlights and obsidian black eyes, and even though he didn't have a regular outfit as most of the mages did, he was willing to wear the Infinite Bloom cloak, which was a forest green cape usually worn by older members who didn't need to stay in their teams.

"We were just about to head off on a mission when those guys intercepted us," Marcus explained. "Kei and Ava happened to arrive in town the same time that they instigated the battle, although those two managed to find and confront the leader. Whatever happened left both of them...panicked, if those two could even panic, and they told me they'd get back-up at the guild."

Grace took in this information and nodded in thanks, but Marcus's attention was already focused elsewhere. "Shoot, Victoria! Fall back!"

Taking advantage of the mage's distraction, several enemies surged forward towards Marcus in a motion to defeat one of the Infinite Bloom mages, but before they could, there was a loud growl. Grace blinked in surprise as she saw a giant...animal that seemed like some kind of breed between a tiger and a snake. "What is that?" Grace blatantly stared at the cross-breed.

"I...believe that it's the result of one of Victoria's experiments," Marcus said weakly. "She loves to cross breed animals. Remember that time when some of the guild began freaking out because of some weird animal? That was her kitten and shark hybrid."

"Marcus," Victoria acknowledged as she hopped next to them, hazel eyes flashing with curiosity. She reached for something in her toolbelt that was wrapped around her waist but stopped when she realized what she was doing. "What is the matter?"

"You have to stop being reckless. If I hadn't stopped you, you might have used too much of your magic and collapsed. Besides...hey, Victoria, are you listening to me?" Marcus sighed in exasperation as his teammate wandered off in her thoughts. Grabbing onto her and making her look into his black eyes, he said firmly, "Stop. Being. Reckless. And can you figure out a way they might have gotten into the city even though the Master had set up a barrier to stop those with ill will?"

Victoria still seemed dazed off, but her mind seemed to focus enough for her to catch the last request. "Yeah, got it," she mumbled as she adjusted her goggles, which pushed back her fiery red hair. Unlike Marcus, Victoria's outfit was intricate and reminiscent of the 'Steampunk Era' about fifty years ago in one of the countries surrounding Fiore. She wore a long, leather coat that was patched up in several areas, along with several buckles and belts which she had left recklessly loose on the coat. Her leather boots clanked against the cobblestone path resoundingly, although Marcus had long ago gave up on making her change her outfit.

But, of course, the most unusual thing about Victoria rather than her dreamy personality and ADHD was her arm. It was a complete metal prosthetic, made of copper, bronze, and some kind of gold metal. The arm was covered with gears, cords, pipes, hoses, and windows that showed the level of various liquids, and it glowed faintly blue when it wasn't spewing puffs of steam.

The girl pulled out a piece of paper and pen from her toolbelt and started muttering things to herself, sketching out something. After a few tense moments in which Grace and Marcus stopped anyone from attacking the working girl, Victoria looked up from her drawing and smiled triumphantly. "Done."

"I gotcha' covered," Grace whispered towards Marcus, nodding towards Victoria. Marcus would be the best to take the information Victoria figured out and create a plan, so she'd have to be the brute strength for now.

" _Spirit Summon: Bear."_

* * *

Jakkura smirked as he snapped his fingers, detonating a mine that he had set up on the cobblestone street beforehand. The street had turned into a mirage of colors and light, destroying nearly everything except the places that were protected by protection spells set up by Gizma, their last teammate.

"Jakkura, Gizma sees a wave of enemies from the East side," Gizma intoned, looking through a telescope that she must have made herself. "They are approaching quickly despite the barrier. Gizma believes that they will cross the border in about ten minutes."

"Tch," Jakkura muttered, literally jumping on the walls of the buildings as he reached the said location in less than a minute. " _Bomb Orb."_

A sphere encased the Dark Mages, who were trying to send spells to break the sphere with no avail. Jakkura took a step closer to the orb that was pulsing with dark energy, and with a single tap of his finger, everything within the sphere was obliterated. A cruel smile wormed across his face as he turned around, walking away smugly.

"Jakkura!" A voice called out, and he looked over to where the source was. It was Marcus, dragging along Victoria as they rushed towards him. "We've figured out how they've gotten in and how to stop the attacks."

Jakkura did not press him to go further, but Marcus must have been used to the man's relatively silent state as he continued, "There's a very likely possibility that the attackers have a new kind of magical weapon simply called the Breaker. It was created in Bosco, according to Victoria, but not many people know about it because of its specific use."

"To counter this, we'll need to create an invention that can nullify the Breakers. It runs on highly concentrated magical energy that is able to focus on to a single point of the staff. They have a lot of them, so it would be easy for them to break down the barrier," Victoria added.

Just then, Gizma joined their group as she gave them all a nod. It was unusual for them to see her so serious, because Gizma was usually the clutz of their group (although Victoria came to a close second). "Gizma and the team just needs to create something that can draw the flow of magic to our device instead of theirs, so the object needs to have a strong magical attraction level, correct?"

Marcus and Victoria nodded.

"Victoria and Gizma, can you two work on that? Jakkura and I should help Grace out." Marcus glanced over to his golden haired guildmate, who was starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies targeting her. The two girls nodded, Victoria working out some formulas and distractedly sketching out a blueprint and Gizma using her magic to form several parts of the machine.

Unlike Chase, Gizma could only create machines and weapons that already existed, which was a slight drawback. However, that meant that she didn't need to use as much magic, and it was easy to create the parts that Victoria pointed out were crucial.

"Jakkura, you take the West wing. I'll take North, and Grace will take South. We need to hold the fort until there's more backup." Marcus gave him a quick nod before heading off.

Jakkura surveyed the enemies in front of him with mild amusement, looking the way a predator does whenever they knew their prey was doomed. Something about the look in his eyes must have scared them, for they took a step back. He only said three words before beginning his attack, a wide smirk spreading across his face. "Scream for me."

* * *

"Isaac, there you are," Grace said with relief. "Where's the other backup?"

"Giving recall orders to all mages on missions near Bosco." He gave a look around the almost clear area. Perhaps she was getting stronger, because even amongst his teammates, Isaac only took note of the strong. "Where are the most enemies?"

"You shouldn't go _looking_ for them, idiot," Grace scoffed.

"I will take on any amount to get stronger." The sword at his side was a reminder of that.

"Well, I think you're rushing this path to power _way_ too much." Grace observed her teammate. Isaac had messy black hair and hazel eyes that seemed to cut straight through her soul. Attached to his hip in a sheath was his sword, which she had learned was called Void, or at least for short. Isaac never really offered any other information about it. He was wearing his tight grey pants and black overcoat over his white shirt, and it was obvious he had been training as his feet, which were always barefoot, had traces of grass and dirt. "What ever happened to enjoying nature?"

"Enjoyment is not a practical option. Only strength will help you achieve your goals." The man was looking elsewhere, as if he was remembering something.

"Well then, work with me for now to clear up this area. It's beneficial to the two of us and we can move on to the next group of mages," Grace offered. The only way to get Isaac to work with anyone was to point out the benefits it did for him.

The man tilted his head in thought before giving a nod. Unsheathing his sword, he said, " _Soul Slicer."_ He slashed the sword in the air, and Grace could literally see pink waves of pure energy cut the enemies into pieces.

She blinked. "Actually, I've been wondering about this for a while now, but why pink?"  
Isaac did not answer.

* * *

"Maaah, recall orders? Already?" Chase swung his legs on the side of the bed, puffing out his cheeks. "Well, isn't that going to be just dandy? And right when we were beginning to get to the good stuff."  
"Recall orders?" Rae glanced up at Chase distractedly, having been crafting a puppet out of wood. Chase, Rae, and Uriah were all sitting in the inn room, waiting for the others to return from their town outing. "Well, that's interesting. Why, though? Stopping through a mission halfway through is going to damage Infinite Bloom's name. Master wouldn't be reckless enough to do something like that for no reason."

Uriah looked up from his position leaned against the wall. "Didn't you guys already mess up your mission, though?"

There was a beat of silence in which both Chase and Rae began to sulk in the corners of the room as Uriah blinked surprisedly at their reaction. "We do that a lot…" Rae muttered, glancing at her teammate. "Especially thanks to Chase."

"Huh? No way! It's usually _your_ fault because you always want to check out the bars at the town and draw attention to our team," Chase countered.

"...says the guy who dyed our employer's hair pink with such strong dye that it didn't wash out for a week," Rae said dryly. At that statement, Uriah's eyebrows raised in slight curiosity and confusion as he watched the two with amusement.

"It turned out that he was going to rip us off," Chase pointed out. "I just gave us an excuse to leave."

"And," Rae said sweetly, golden eyes narrowing as she continued. "You also managed to put us on probation for a month without missions. Not to mention you also earned us classes with Master of how to treat our clients."

"But after that we managed to give our clients decent enough service that they sometimes gave us tips. Everything worked out in the end, right?"

Rae groaned, leaning back on the beige sofa as she looked mournfully outside of the window to where Ames, Mars, and Alucard were. Of course she was stuck with Chase _again_. "It doesn't matter the end result, but if you keep doing stuff like this one day-"

"So it doesn't matter about the end result?" Chase repeated, eyes sparkling mischievously as Rae resisted the urge to smack him or something of the like. He _knew_ he was pissing her off and was doing this all on purpose.

"I give up…" Rae groaned, sinking deeper into the sofa as she turned to Uriah. "What are you going to be doing from here?"

Uriah shrugged, contemplating her question. "I'm still looking for my sister, and that's my number one priority right now. But…"

"Then why don't you join our guild?" Chase offered, giving Uriah a bright grin. "It's really fun, and I can relate to wanting to take care of your sister. If you take a lot of missions, you get to go to a lot of places, and who knows? Maybe you'll find her at one of those places."

"It would be a shame to let your skills go to waste," Rae added. "Not to mention your magic reminds me of a girl that's my roommate. Remind me again, what exactly do you remember about your sister?"

"She has bright blue eyes and should be around seventeen or eighteen years old. She could get angry pretty easily, especially if someone she's protective about is hurt. We got separated...about seven years ago? Give or take. She's a mage like me." Uriah recited this all with a grim look on his face. This was _all_ he remembered about his sister.

Rae and Chase exchanged glances before having a hurried situation, cutting the other off as they exchanged ideas.

"Hey, doesn't that sound like-"

"No, but I'm pretty sure she was an only child-"

"Shouldn't we check?" At this proposal, both mages turned expactantly towards Uriah. Rae was thoughtfully rubbing her chin as she examined Uriah's facial features, most likely trying to match it up with whatever guildmate she was thinking of. On the other hand, Chase's approach was much more blunt.

"Do you recognize the name Grace Arc?" Chase asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at Uriah. The black haired mage was standing stock still, and faintly Chase could see his hands trembling.

"...I recognize the name Grace. I...I'm not sure about Arc, but Grace sounds familiar." Uriah couldn't find a way to describe the feeling that overwhelmed him. There was a possibility that his sister was just out of his reach, yet something about this situation didn't feel right.

"Chase," Rae hissed, pulling the boy closer to her as she whispered furiously, "What if she's not her? You can't just bring up Uriah's hopes like that. Can you imagine what Uriah must be feeling right now? He's unable to help his family right now and has been letting his sister fend on her own. You can't-"

"Actually, I can," Chase said, firmly looking away from Rae's surprised look. "...I can relate."

There was a beat of silence before Rae cleared her throat awkwardly, looking away. Her cheeks were burning as she inwardly chided herself. Rae knew that Infinite Bloom mages were touchy about their pasts, herself included. She had stepped over the line, even for Chase. "Sorry."

"...yeah, it's fine." Chase relented. Glancing at Rae and Uriah, he shrugged nonchalantly. He could tell them. "Not like there's much to tell. I have a little brother who's seventeen, two years younger than me, and a younger sister, who's fifteen. My sister...she has a disease that can't be cured right now. My parents were able to find a doctor who could cure her, but there was a misunderstanding and they were killed, while the doctor went into hiding again. And, well, you know...stuff. Other stuff."

Rae took in the information seriously, nodding her head solemnly. Even though she usually saw him as _Chase_ , there was something about him that could both light up and darken the atmosphere depending on his mood. He set the mood of their team, and although Rae was sure most of their other guildmates didn't realize it, Chase was smart. _Extremely_ smart, and he could be serious when he needed to be.

Chase's aversion to the subject was blatantly obvious. Uriah himself was shifting awkwardly in his seat, somewhat able to relate but probably feeling a little out of place with the two teammates and Chase's sudden reveal.

"My family knew Kei's family," Rae spoke up, bringing both boys' attention to her. She wasn't all sure why she was explaining this, but she knew she could trust both of them "We were a group of mages that guarded his aristocratic family. The travelling caravan chain we were guarding was attacked by mages dealing on the more...darker side of things. Kei wasn't there, but I was, and when they attacked...all those who weren't killed were sent to Bosco, the country North of Fiore."

"Why Bosco?" Uriah asked.

"...Bosco's economy is extremely high thanks to its extensive use in the slave trade," Chase explained, eyes darting towards Rae every once in a while. "Although slavery is basically illegal in Fiore, in Bosco it's different. I heard that they have a casting system, with slaves at the bottom. But illegal slave trafficking? From another country? Why would they do that?"

Looking at Rae's grim face, Chase amended, "Never mind. The atmosphere's too heavy right now, so let's all chill and do something else." Plastering on a bright grin on his face, he said, "I'll be in the lobby. I want to be the first to welcome Alucard and the rest back." He quickly exited the room.

Rae and Uriah sat in silence. "Hah, well we'd better get ready to head back to Malba City." Rae tried for a weak smile as she stood up, walking close to the mage. Sitting next to him so that she was at eye level, she said quietly, "We don't want to force you into a decision, but I know that our guild would love to have you as a part of our family."

"No one is really alone in our guild," she continued, "Even if they want to be. Some of the guys like Alucard, Isaac, or Jakkura might deny it, but us guildmates are there to look out for each other. The guild isn't completely white, after all, every guild has its dark secrets, but I consider it the closest thing I have to a home."

The only sound in the room was the sound of the fan, buzzing faintly. There was the clitter clatter sound of shoes hitting tile, heading closer in their direction from outside of the door.

"I...I'll go." Uriah said finally. "I'll join."

"Perfect!" Chase bounded back into the room, dragging Ames and Mars by the cuffs of their sleeves while Alucard trailed behind the trio. "Because it was really going to be a pain in the ass if we had to kidnap you and bring you home." Chase shot him a goofy grin.

"You've helped our teammates," Mars said slowly. "And because of that, we already consider you a part of our guild."

Ames added, "And, by default, you're part of our family." Although Alucard did not add anything, by the lack of disagreement, they knew their teammate was fine with that.

"Welcome to the guild, Uriah," they all chorused, smiling brightly.

If only that brightness could last.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I updated again. Look at that! :)**

 **Can anyone see where the plot is going from here? Haha, this is going to be fun. And, as always, thank you for your support! I really get motivated whenever I know someone has read my works. Thanks for reading~**


	11. S-Class

"We've arrived at the guild," Chase announced overdramatically, coming to an abrupt halt just before the door. Mars almost bumped into him thanks to the sudden movement, but thankfully Uriah pulled him back at the last moment. Glancing over to Rae and Alucard, he asked, "What are we going to do about Uriah?"

Alucard and Rae exchanged glances. The man did not reply, however, forcing Rae to speak. "We're going to recommend Uriah for S-Class," she said confidently. "Alucard and I have witnessed his skills first hand...sort of. But we believe he can become an asset to the guild, and he's trustworthy."

"We don't doubt you two," Ames said patiently. "It's just that you'll have to confirm his abilities with the Master."  
Mars nodded. "I think we should go inside now and figure out why the guild sent a recall."

Alucard moved to open the doors, which were made of solid wood and enchanted with several runes that made sure only mages with good intent and those with the guild mark were allowed inside. The team passed through without any trouble, and they almost stopped completely in their tracks.

"Where is everyone?" Mars voiced their thoughts, looking around the guild hall. It was completely empty, the usually lively tables barren and without any people. "Around this time of the day…"

"Ah, Team 1. Good timing." A voice sounded behind them, and instinctively all of the mages dropped to their knees and bowed, Ames pulling Uriah and a reluctant Alucard down as well. "We were wondering when you all would get here, you troublemakers."

They lowered their heads even more. "We apologize for the mission and for keeping you waiting, Master," Ames said diplomatically, his golden bangs covering his green eyes slightly as he stared intently at the ground. "It was not in our intentions to stay as long as we did on that mission, but there were some loose ends that we had to wrap up."

"I need not to hear of your reasons. All that matters is now." The Master glanced down at Uriah. "And who is this?"

"Uriah, sir," Uriah answered. Normally, he would have done some kind of dramatic flare in his introduction or been less polite, but there was a permeating aura that demanded respect around the Master of Infinite Bloom that he dared not to defy.

Master had long white hair, tied in a ponytail, and an eyepatch on his left eye. He was holding a cane with his left hand, but despite the fact that it should have felt like a weakness, there was a dangerous look in the man's black eyes that suggested he could fight well above his age.

Rae cleared her throat. "If you'd excuse our impudence for taking actions before attaining your permission, Master, I'd like to nominate this man to be one of our S-Class mages." Although her gaze was on the ground, her stance was firm. "Alucard can also vouch for his skills."

"Alucard?" The Master turned to the eldest of the group.

"...he's alright," Alucard grumbled, ignoring Ames's hiss for the lack of respect in his reply.

"Which, in Alucard speak, means a lot," Mars added.

The Master stroked his beard, obsidian black eyes glancing once again at Uriah before looking at Rae and Alucard. "Praise from those two is rare, and I see that so far there is no ill intent or malice in the boy. Normally, I would hold the inauguration tonight, but things have been a little different lately."

"Wait…" Uriah stopped them all, eyebrows creased confusedly. "Is S-Class initiation really this easy?"

"We trust the judgement of our guild members and Master above all. If they say that someone is worthy, then they are," Ames explained. "Besides, if you were evil you wouldn't be allowed into the guild hall. Not to mention that most of the members here are pretty chill about their mage rank."

There was a moment of silence before Chase broke it.

"Ah, yeah!" Chase jumped up as Rae facepalmed and groaned. "Master, why did you recall us? And where is everyone?"

"They're working together to recreate our barriers," Master informed grimly. "Malba City has been attacked by a group of Dark Mages, and we are suspecting that they were mercenaries hired by either Bosco or Ca-Elum."

Several reactions happened at once. Mars's eyes widened as he asked, "Mercenaries?" At the same time, Ames asked, "How? The barrier is... _was_ unbreachable!". Alucard was raising his eyebrows, Chase was silent, Rae was clenching her fists, and Uriah was torn between asking about the Dark Mages and why another country would be targeting their city.

"A war has been declared. The Trade War, they call it, and Fiore is at a severe disadvantage. Bosco, Ca-Elum, and Minstrel have joined forces to try taking over our country. There is a multitude of reasons, but among them is the morally incorrect slave market in those countries and our luscious access to the sea and its resources. Fiore is right next to all of these countries, and the most we can be thankful for is that Seven didn't join them."

"Is there anything else we know right now?" Mars asked, his mind already running through possible weak points of the city.

"Fiore is in a panic. We have not realized it, but those countries have already planted seeds of influence on towns the Council had neglected in its haste to form. Drug circles, political leaders, even the guilds are not unaffected." Master suddenly looked very old as he gave a sigh.

Ames suddenly gasped as he groaned in frustration. "The town," he said, turning towards Alucard and Mars. "We were at one of them."

"So you've already encountered this," Master said thoughtfully. "I have alerted the Council of our attack, but they are being overwhelmed by multiple reports throughout Fiore. Team 4 has mainly been able to drive out the forces in Malba City, but we need to send out mages to secure Fiore's territory. But that's not all. These countries are working with an organization called the Watchers, and their influence extends far beyond Fiore."

Alucard, Ames, and Mars exchanged glances again. Their other two teammates gave them confused looks, in which Ames gave a _we'll talk later_ look back.

Suddenly scratching his head, the Master glanced thoughtfully towards Alucard. "Alucard, do you know if Uriah here can handle the S-Class squad's missions?"

"I suppose."

"Then, Uriah, follow Alucard and I. We'll show you the first part of S-Class initiation." Master turned around, Alucard treading behind him silently and Uriah following the two deeper into the guildhall and into a small hallway. The rest of the team gave each other a nod before heading off their own ways.

* * *

"What is this place?" Uriah touched the wall of the small cavern, fascinated by the slight glow of magic that illuminated the cave when he touched the wall. The air was damp, but there was no sound of water. Magic itself was humming in the air, and light orbs of purple floated in the space as they walked along.

"The sole purpose for Infinite Bloom." Master tapped his cane against the wall, and to Uriah's amazement the wall literally unfolded, revealing encrypted runes that were brimming with so much magic that they were visible to the naked eye without any activation needed. "Uriah, the duty of S-Class mages is to provide extra support and protection to their teammates. They must provide guidance, and must realize when to do and when not to do something."

"S-Class mages are the heart of our guild, and they must make sure that Infinite Bloom's goal...our legacy lives on." Master continued. "We Infinite Bloom mages are here to protect Fiore with our lives. We are the holders of Fiore's dirtiest secrets, and Fiore's purest truths."

"Secrets?"

Master turned a hard gaze to Uriah. "Every country will have its own secrets. It is up to you if you would like to take the mantle and protect this country, secrets and all. S-Class mages have extra responsibilities...dirtier missions, but they all are aware of what they have signed up for. In a working organization, there is always going to be a darker side to it."

When Uriah glanced at Alucard, the man gave him nothing but a skeptical look. He weighed the pros and cons of becoming an S-Class mage of the guild. Mars had explained to him that their ranking was somewhat lax, as many of the members just opted not to become S-Class because of their laziness or lack of ambition. However, Uriah knew that it was necessary to have people who were working with things more morally wrong.

And if he could find his sister...

"I can do it, sir."

The man's lips curled upwards. "I figured you'd say that. Welcome to the guild, Uriah."

* * *

"How'd it go?" Mars asked Uriah curiously. He and Ames had stayed behind, lingering in the guild hall to wait for the newcomer. Ames was also standing with them, his green eyes sparkling with curiosity. All of the S-Class mages that had been brought by Master to whatever was past the guild came back tight lipped and unwilling to talk about the experience.

"Good, I guess," Uriah shrugged casually as he flipped his hair, grinning somewhat arrogantly as he replied, "After all, I _am_ pretty talented."

Mars let out a small chuckle at that. "Do you know your team placement yet?"

"Team placement?"

"Each generation of mages is put into teams. Currently we have four, and our team is Team 1," Ames explained. "It's sort of uneven though, so sometimes when there's missions that require more expertise in a field, the teams have to separate and everyone hangs out at Rae's bar. For example, there was this one mission that required a lot of carefulness because it was really politically important, and Master couldn't risk any of the teams messing up, so he gathered the most level headed and polite ones in the guild and set them off. Then we just hang around the bar and play games or place bets until they get back."

"It's sort of like a cool guild get together," Mars added. "Except...well, usually when the teams are split up it's so the S-Class mages go on some high class mission, so I'm not sure if you'll be able to go."

"Hm…" Uriah looked thoughtful at that point. "Who is in what team?"

"Well, Mars, Rae, Chase, Alucard, and I are Team 1." Ames listed all of his teammates with ease. "We'd like it if you could join us, but there are other teams with four that probably need more people."

"Team 2 includes Kei, Ava, Grace, and Isaac. Kei's an Illusion Mage, so he usually stays around the city and makes sure our guild hall is secure. Ava uses Foxfire Magic and a certain kind of staff that allows her to control spirits and have a sentient blue flame. Grace uses Animal Magic, allowing her to summon multiple kinds of creatures. And Isaac's a...swordsman. Let's just leave it at there." Mars shivered. "You may be placed with them since they only have four people."

"Team 3's Iris, Michael, Raiden, and Riley. They're pretty solid as a team, so I don't think you'll be placed with them despite their fewer number. All of them are really into doing the right thing. Apparently they were attacked during our mission by some rogue mage from the organization Master was talking about earlier, the Watchers." Ames continued. "But we're not sure if this is all accurate. Information is misleading."

"Shouldn't we check out the bar, then?" Mars glanced over at Ames. "Rae's sure to have dug up something by now, not to mention we should greet our guildmates."  
"Wait a minute...why a bar?" Uriah asked, and both Ames and Mars exchanged glances.

"Rae's established a sort of information network amongst bartenders. Apparently even the evilest of a Dark mage can get drunk given the right amount of liquor. While we're gone on missions, either Iris or Kei takes over, but now that we're back she's probably back to work. We can count on Chase being there because he always wants to annoy her." Ames shifted the weight of his foot to the other side as he motioned for the two to follow him. "Let's go meet the guild."

* * *

"The hell? I asked for _red_ wine, not _white_!" The sound of glass shattering echoed through the bar as several people looked up from their spots before quickly looking down again. A fist slammed down on the table in front of the intoxicated patron, and he looked up to see the very pissed off face of one green haired bar maid.

"Sir, I apologize. Our bartenders have been overwhelmed by the stream of people who want a drink right now and they must have gotten your order wrong. We'll get you the right drink right away." Rae smiled sincerely as the man began to grumble something under his breath.

" _However_ ," she continued cheerfully, "Because of the steady flow of customers, we've resorted to using our glass cups as well. Each of those is handpicked and imported from one of our neighboring countries. Do you _know_ the effort it took for me to convince Alucard to get me these? I had to promise to give him ten bottles of sangria and twenty bottles of sake. That's _thirty_ wasted bottles of alcohol just for these glass cups, and you just _broke_ one of them."  
Behind her, she could hear Chase chortle.

"Now, _pay up or get the hell out of my bar,"_ she hissed, pulling the man closer to her so he could meet her furious eyes. She let him stay like that for a moment before letting go.

The man whimpered before rushing out of the bar, exiting at the same time the rest of Team 1 entered.

"...we've just returned, and there's already a man who just ran out crying like a baby. What happened?" Mars deadpanned.

Chase starting laughing harder, but with one withering glance from Rae he began coughing to cover up his laughter.

"Nothing much. Since Iris is out of commission and Kei is repairing the barrier, I need Mars to help for now." Glancing warily at her teammates, Rae asked to Uriah, "It might be a bit much to ask of you for your first day, but can you help me out? I think Chase is a little busy laughing over there, Alucard is a little too antisocial, and Ames will get chewed out by some of the scarier patrons here. Please?"

"I'll do it." Uriah suddenly scratched the back of his neck embarrassedly as he looked away, feeling the smiling gazes of the team. "Just because you'd owe me. That's all."

"Either way." Rae shrugged, tossing Mars and Uriah an apron. "Mars, stay behind the bar. Uriah, lead them to their tables. I'll bring the drinks out."

Uriah was just starting to get into the groove of serving drinks when the doors of the bar slammed open, revealing a girl. She had long, waist length pink hair that made Uriah's head hurt when looking at it ( _why?_ ). She was wearing a yellow sweater and dark red cargo pants, and out of the corner of his eye he could see that there was a bottle of alcohol in her left pocket. She was wearing striking yellow and red accents: yellow boots, shorts, and socks, paired with a red scarf ( _hisheadhurthisheadhurt_ ), red gloves, and a red tank top.

The most prominent thing about the girl was that she had a black scabbard at her side, with some kind of sword sheathed inside.

"Ah, May?" Mars asked, his eyes widening slightly as he recognized the figure. The rest of his team had raised eyebrows, obviously not recognizing the person.

"Mars," she acknowledged briefly, her eyes glancing around the bar. "Where's Jakkura? I need to get back at that bastard for beating me last time."  
Although the others looked confused (except for Alucard: he could never look confused), it was obvious that Mars knew what she was talking about as he shivered and said weakly, "He's...out. I don't understand why you have the need to challenge him again, but I'm telling you: that guy's a tank. He can take in more liquor than all of us here combined."

"Like hell I'm going to let some arrogant punk beat _me_ at drinking," May growled. "Do you know how long it took me to find where your guild was? Infinite Bloom, some plate to the South my ass. You're horrible at giving directions."

"You could have come back with us," Mars pointed out, a small smile tugging at his lips as he watched the girl moan.

"But then I would've missed out on the festival. They have the best spicy food there, I swear," she complained, and Mars rolled his eyes.

"I love spicy food too," he said, and in the background he heard Chase mutter 'more than just _like_ , that guy's obsessed'. "But I didn't stay."

"That's because you have commitments," May pointed out. "I doubt that Jakkura would have waited for you to spend the night at a festival."

"Hey, Mars, sorry to interrupt your flirting…" Chase paused as May and Mars both sent him a dark look. "...but who's this? Your girlfriend?" Behind him, Ames, Rae, and Uriah nodded questioningly. Alucard just scowled.

"We met during a mission where I was paired with Jakkura," Mars explained. "And we're not flirting, nor is she my girlfriend. This is May Fego, and she's a freelance mage for the moment. She and Jakkura had a drinking contest and Jakkura won hands down, and I guess she's held a grudge ever since then. She likes winning, and she helped Jakkura and I out with our mission when we met her. May was supposed to come with us and join our guild because she wants to grow stronger, but she got sidetracked by the festival at the town we were staying at."

"Hi," Rae held out her hand, giving the girl a bright smile. "I'm Rae, and I'm one of Mars's teammates. It'd be nice to have another girl in the guild. A pleasure to meet you."

"Same here," May took the girl's hand, but there seemed to be some kind of understanding in the two girls' eyes that the other boys couldn't get as they shook hands. Leering at Rae slightly with an excited glint in her eyes, May asked, "I heard you could hold your liquor pretty well. Want to test that?"

"Hell no," Rae laughed, shaking her head as she elaborated goodnaturedly, "I run the bar, and the last time I got drunk these idiots ruined it. Maybe some other time?"

The two girls shared a nod.

"The name's Chase," Chase sent a bright beam towards the girl, and May's features seemed to soften as she took in his vibrant and friendly nature. "Nice to meet you, Mars's not-girlfriend." At that comment he earned a sharp jab in the stomach from Rae and a wry glance from Mars, as well as May's ire.

"Do you really want to die that badly?" May growled, fingers inching towards her sword as Mars laughed nervously again and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Chase runs his mouth too much. He didn't mean it." Mars was all too aware of May's rather impulsive nature when it came to attacking when provoked, and he knew that Rae would _kill_ him if the bar got destroyed. "Continue on with introductions."

"My name is Ames." Ames gave her a soft smile, his emerald eyes lightening up although there was a slight hesitant and nervous tone to his voice. "I-it's a pleasure to meet you, miss Fego. I promise that our guild isn't as strange as it may look."

"Just call me May," the girl said, a smirk tugging at her lips as she seemed to calm down slightly. "Miss Fego makes me sound old."

"Uriah," the boy introduced easily. "I just officially joined today, so I guess we're both going to be newbies together." Usually Uriah would have added something like, "But I promise you that I'm just as good as the rest of them", but he supposed that for an introduction that would suffice. Plus, when he started d intently at the girl's pink hair, a headache returned to him. He quickly looked away.

"Alucard." The man didn't bother to elaborate further, so they supposed that was that and were about to move on before Alucard asked, "You use swords?"

"Talon is my family's pride and joy," May said proudly, patting the sword to her side as she seemed to examine the swordsman. "You use swords as well. A duel sometime?"

Alucard glanced over to Mars as if to silently ask if the girl was worth the effort, and Mars simply shrugged. He knew that Alucard _loved_ challenges, and he knew that May was also extremely competitive. The two would develop a good relationship in the future, probably, with May probably being inspired to train harder to beat Alucard and Alucard gaining a sparring partner and having some social interaction.

"Well, I guess we have another guild member," Chase said thoughtfully as Ames nodded.

"Why don't you and Mars take her to the guild? I'll stay here with Rae and Alucard," Ames suggested. "Then Master will probably call all the teams to gather tomorrow or something so we can do team assignments for Uriah and May."

"Team 3 is in the guildhall, but they're unconscious," Alucard said suddenly, and at that the ones who knew Iris, Riley, Raiden, and Michael fell silent. His voice was monotonous as he continued, "So the meeting may not take place right away."

"Is Alucard actually socially interacting with someone?" Rae and Chase asked at the same time incredulously, and the two teammates looked at each other for a moment in surprise at the simultaneous reaction.

"You're copying me," Rae accused.

"Am not. It was just a coincidence," Chase said, shrugging casually.

"Are too. I do _not_ have the same mindset as you." Rae looked like she was torn between banging her head against a wall and returning back to work in denial.

"Sorry, sweetheart," Chase apologized, playing with something in his hands. Ames looked closer to see that it was a cube shaped puzzle, and the boy was rapidly rotating the sides of the cube to solve it without even looking. "But if our pranks mean anything, they kind of indicate that we do share the same mindset."

Mars's eyebrow slightly twitched as he recalled the time when he had been walking through the streets of Malba City when not once, but _twice_ he was assaulted by neon colored pant (one was blue, the color that Chase usually wore; the other was green: the color of Rae's hair). It had not been long to figure out the suspects, but it had taken long to wash the paint out. Rae and Chase had both apologized after, Chase with a bright smile and Rae with a slightly mischievous glint in her eyes, but he never got over it.

"Anyways," Ames intervened before they could do anything else that might make May not want to join the guild. "Welcome to the guild, May. We're happy to…"

 _Boom._

The ground shook, the patrons of the bar either falling off their stools or desperately clinging onto the counter not to fall to the ground. The lights began to flicker on and off, and a crackling sound could be heard if one were to step closer to them. The shaking lasted for nearly an entire minute as Mars and Rae, with skill only experience could bring, frantically grabbed the falling glasses with their hands or magic to keep them from breaking.

The vibrations seemed to resonate into their entire beings, and finally the unearthly shaking stopped.

Silence.

"...what was that?" Chase asked weakly, breaking the silence. Alucard was silent, doing nothing but striding towards the entrance of the bar and peering outside to see if any attackers or of the sort were outside. There was nothing. Ames got up shakily, and to his left Uriah was extending his hand to May to help the girl up.

"I don't know, but I don't think it's good," Ames said warily.

" _All S-Class mages, report to duty at the guildhall at this instance."_ Master's voice boomed across the entire town, some kind of magic being used to amplify his voice.

"Alucard," Ames said quietly as the man gave them all a curt nod (the closest thing Alucard would give to acknowledgement of their team bonds) before hurrying off into the direction of the Mikage Forest. Uriah was right on his tail.

"Alright, customers out unless you want to be killed by drunk mages," Rae called to the bar, mourning her profits as the citizens all glanced up at her before filing out. All of them were aware of what happened when Infinite Bloom S-Class mages left.

"What's going on?" May asked.

"Welcome to Happy Hour," Chase introduced.

"When all the non-S-Class mages of Infinite Bloom gather at the bar..." Ames continued.

"...and chaos is wrecked," Mars concluded. "The S-Class mages will leave for an important mission or something, and we'll be stuck here until further notice."

"...fun."

* * *

 **A/N: I. Am. So. Sorry.**

 **I didn't think that it'd take long until my next update, but days of putting it off turned into weeks which turned into month(s). I got sidetracked by the Akatsuki no Yona fandom and totally stuffed this chapter in the back of my mind. Then plot bunnies unfolded and turned into several ideas (which I have on a poll on my profile, if you want to check it out).**

 **...but I'm back. Ish. So, let's see how this turns out. I was originally planning on adding more character interactions as I'm pretty sure we've established Team 1 dynamics, but I didn't have enough time and decided you all just deserved an update. From now on I'm posting my status (ish) on my profile every now and then so you have a general idea of when I'll update.**

 **If there's any questions regarding the story, feel free to PM me. Again, thanks for all of your support. :) I read every review and just the thought that someone reading my stories is enough to make me happy.**

 **On a side note, I'm now accepting villains. Although those who don't have an OC in have first priority, feel free to send one in. Info is in the first chapter and on my profile.**

 **See ya. Thanks for reading! :)**


	12. We're Off to Find the Wizard

**A/N: I apologize for the long wait.**

* * *

 _S-Class: Uriah, Jakkura, Alucard, Raiden_

* * *

Jakkura was never a very social person. The only kinds of people that he really got along with were children, and that was mainly because they were fascinated by his rather unusual appearance. His animal features, from his canine like nose to his furry tail, seemed to attract attention from the little ones fairly easily.

Interacting with peers of his own age...well, that was a different matter all-together. One of the first missions his team had taken him on was a rather 'simple' mission to investigate a rather suspicious town who was apparently conning its visitors. Things had come to things, and when he had been smirking in delight while looking at the destroyed town once full of people that mocked them, his team had looked rather horrified.

Most of the non-S-class guildmates tended to steer clear of him, the few exceptions being Chase, Rae, and Marcus. Chase had always pestered him about his unusual appearance, to which he always replied a different excuse to. Rae had always pestered him to buy more alcohol. Marcus was their appointed team leader, who honestly believed that their team could work well together if they just 'put in a bit more effort' and 'got to know and trust each other'.

Sometimes he would try to sneer and insult some of the weaker guildmates, but he eventually had to give that up when Team 3, ever the goodie two-shoes, started to intervene.

The majority of his guildmates were annoying. The S-Class mages, on the other hand, he could put up with. Jakkura valued strength over everything else, and it was nice to have strong people to spar with. Challenges, which would help him get stronger.

Silently, he made his way through Malba City and towards where he knew the guildhall to be. He knew the Master must have a good reason for summoning the S-Class mages on such a short notice, and if the destruction around him and the sudden attack on the city was any indication, there was something serious going on.

The doors of the guild were already open, and he entered the guildhall warily. However, spotting Raiden, Alucard, and one other person he didn't recognize, he allowed himself to lower his guard just a bit.

"Jakkura," Raiden acknowledged, nodding at him. Eyes scanning him over, the Lightning Mage said blandly, "You have some ash on your shoulder."

Raiden had always been a perfectionist who paid attention to every detail, and that certainly helped and was also extremely troublesome on missions.

"Explosions." The one word explanation sufficed enough. "Who's him?"

"The name's Uriah," the boy introduced himself. "I'm a newly appointed S-Class mage who just joined your guild this morning. Alucard can speak for me."

Jakkura turned to the other quiet mage. Alucard sighed. "...he's okay," he grumbled.

"...I still think that's suspicious," Raiden muttered, but shrugged it off. "I heard we had another new member?"

"May Fego, met her briefly at Rae's bar," Uriah said.

"Does anyone know why we're here?" Jakkura asked, trying to steer the conversation back to business. He didn't care too much for socializing.

"Master's coming in a minute," Alucard explained simply. Glancing over at Raiden, he asked, "Why aren't you in bed, resting?"

Jakkura knew that even though it sounded like Alucard was concerned, there was a more likely chance that the man asked that to see if Raiden was up to the task and wouldn't slow them down. He was practical like that, and that was a reason that Jakkura found Alucard less annoying than most. The other reason being that Alucard was a well-trained swordsman who served well as a training partner.

"...I suspect that this mission we're about to be assigned to has something to do with the man who attacked my team. And I may have a connection with him that may prove useful. Iris and Riley got hurt the most during the encounter," Raiden explained, glancing briefly over to where the infirmary was. "Plus, I was worried that only Alucard and Jakkura would be going on the mission. If so, there would probably be a higher chance of the mission failing due to lack of communication."

"Well, I'm here now," Uriah chimed in. "And...who's Iris and Riley?"

"They're my teammates," Raiden replied. "We were attacked earlier and so they're out of commission at the moment, but I promise that you'll meet them sometime when they get better. My other teammate's probably watching over things at the bar by now."

"I see," Uriah hummed thoughtfully. "We should have some kind of guild get-together and have introductions and stuff. That'd be cool."

"I don't think so…" Alucard grumbled.

Jakkura nodded in agreement. "They're annoying."

"Well...the only problem is that the last time our entire guild got together, we kind of got out of control. But I'm pretty sure we can get all of the mages in our generation to meet up," Raiden offered. "There's only what...four teams of us, how many people?"

"Somewhere around twenty," Alucard offered, for once actually speaking something that wasn't completely negative.

"Now...nineteen, exactly" Raiden said, recounting with his fingers one more time.

Perfectionist. Jakkura grumbled in his head.

"By the way, when did your team get back?" Raiden asked Alucard curiosly.

"This morning. The battle was basically over by then so we just got Uriah into the guild and showed him around. Everyone else was just doing damage control, although I guess Master must have some important business he still needs to attend to."

Speaking of their Master… "When's the Master getting here?" Jakkura asked impatiently. Of course, at that very moment, in walked Master himself. Despite the fact that he must have participated thoroughly in a tiresome battle, the man still looked as powerful and unyielding as ever.

"Raiden, Alucard, Jakkura, Uriah," Master said slowly, walking towards them. "You four are some of the best of the best of our guild. As always, we try to keep the age groups relatively separated, and I know that you three…" He gestured towards the first three mages he mentioned. "...are used to working together. Uriah is a new addition, but I assure you that his heart lies with our guild. Besides you four, there are five other adult S-Class mages. All of them are currently on very important missions that can not be disrupted, which is why I decided to send you four despite your rather young ages."

Master glanced at the serious faces of the four mages and gave Jakkura a wink which he did not send back. "As you may or may not have heard, the country is under attack. The Trade Wars, between us and the alliance of Bosco and Ca-Elum, has recently started thanks to certain incidents. You all shall be going undercover in Bosco to gather information about their new magical warfare weapons. You also have a secondary mission of checking in on this town on the edge of Fiore where men from said countries seem to be gathering. Raiden, you lead and make sure they stay on track."

"Yes, sir," Raiden saluted.

"For the sake of Fiore, succeed in your missions," Master said gravely, turning to the rest of them. "I await the news of your success."

* * *

 **A/N: I understand that this is a short, tiny excuse of a chapter and I'm really sorry. :(**

 **Life caught up to me, my muse wandered off somewhere, and I just simply put off writing this story for a while. Hopefully this chapter, short as it was, will put me back into the writing mood. :)**

 **A special thanks to all of the PM'ers who kept reminding me to update and finally got me to start writing again. ;)**

 **Also, I believe I've gotten two villains thus far. I'd say I'll probably accept two to four more, soooo yeah.**

 **Thanks for reading. :D**


	13. Happy Hour

**A/N: LOL this is for all those who haven't seen their characters recently and have characters below S-Class. 3**

* * *

"Here's your drink," Mars slid the glass over to May. "Make sure not to drink too much, or we'll have to lug you home." He blinked in surprise and said, "Speaking of which, I guess you haven't been put in a dorm yet."

May shrugged casually. "I guess," she mumbled. "Probably later, when everything's settled."

"I heard you're rooming with Iris and I," Rae chimed in, nudging the girl cheerfully. "It's always nice to have more company. Iris is in the infirmary right now, but I'm sure you'll get along with her."

"Iris is really nice, but be wary of Rae," Mars advised. "She's too manipulative for her own good."

"I heard that, you know," Rae muttered.

"I hate manipulative people," May said under her breath, rolling her eyes.

"Thanks, dear," Rae winked and proceeded to head off somewhere else.

May's ears perked up when she heard several voices approaching them.

"...but Gizma's worried about Michael!"

"We can't stay at the guild all day, Gizma."

"B-but…"

"Oh, looks like some of our guild mates are here to introduce themselves," noted Mars idly. "Hey Marcus, Victoria, Gizma. May, meet three of the members from Team 4."

The trio who had been rapidly approaching suddenly stopped in their tracks when hearing their names. May observed the three of them, trying to glean as much information as she could from their appearances.

Marcus was a rather tall individual. His spiky black hair swept over his eyes, a single streak of bright yellow standing out amongst all of the dark strands. He gave her a friendly smile, but the look in his black eyes seemed confident. He held the air of a leader, and something about him seemed like people would naturally gravitate to him. "Hi, I'm Marcus," he greeted, holding out his hand. May shook it firmly, and noted that he had quite a firm grip. So he was strong too.

Two girls flanked to his left and right.

"I'm Victoria," one girl introduced. May immediately noticed her rather disorganized appearance: she was wearing a long leather coat riddled with patches that nearly reached the floor, which had several buckles and belts dangling. Her blazing crimson hair was held back not by a headband, but a pair of green goggles. Her arm...that was the most interesting thing about her. It was definitely a prosthetic, although with the multiple gears, cords, pipes, houses, and windows in it, May doubted that she got it from a regular mechanic. She most likely made it herself.

"Gizma," the shorter of the two women introduced herself. She looked as if she would get along well with Victoria: she unkempt orange hair kept, with singed black tips that were barely held back by her goggles. Unlike Victoria's rather Steampunk-themed appearance, Gizma appeared to be wearing something along the lines of a mechanic's outfit: orange overalls, a white long sleeved shirt, and a toolbelt. She offered her hand as well, and May took it.

"You have grease marks on your cheeks," May said casually.

Gizma blinked in surprise and wiped them off. "Oh, really? Gizma thanks you very much for that, then. Gizma always forgets to clean her cheeks after working."

May decide not to question why the girl was speaking in third person, instead just coming to the conclusion that all Infinite Bloom mages had their eccentric quirks to them.

"Have a drink," Rae offered, popping up beside them and jabbing Mars in the side to spur him into action. The bartender quickly hurried off before she could do so again (elbow jabs _hurt_ ).

Marcus (somewhat reluctantly) accepted a drink from his guildmate. "Thanks, Rae."

"No prob, Strike," she grinned, punching his arm casually before heading off to serve someone else.

Seeing May's somewhat questioning look, Marcus shrugged and explained, "Some of us have been in the guild for a long time. I've been here for seven years, and Rae's been around for the same time and was the same age as me. Some of the other mages that've been around for awhile are Kei, who's been here for nine years, Iris has been around for seven, Michael's been here for eight. The five of us used to go on a lot of missions together as kids. I perform Lightning Magic, and since my last name's Stryker, they nicknamed me Strike."

"Most of the mages have been here for two or three years, although you, Alucard, Grace, Jakkura, and Uriah...that's the new guy, right? Well, you guys just joined this year," Victoria chimed in.

"Is that so?" May hummed thoughtfully, taking in the information. "Sounds pretty nice."

They heard a thud and immediately heads swerved to see Chase sprawled on the ground, groaning. "Avaaaaa," he whined. "That was so uncool."

Said girl simply smirked and innocently shrugged, pocketing the strangely glowing object that must have startled Chase in her jacket. "Well, you asked for it."

"I just wanted to try out your staff~ It just looks so cool!" Chase protested.

"I can always broadcast to the world about that one incident with the ambassador-" Ava's (non too subtle) blackmailing made the boy wince.

"How'd you know about that one?" He mumbled.

"Rae told me."

The boy shot a look of betrayal at his teammate, who simply shrugged and high fived Ava as she passed through. "So unfair…"

"Oh, Kei, there you are," Mars drawled, seeing the Illusion Mage enter the bar. "Is the guildhall secure?"

"Yeah." Kei sighed, running a hand through his ginger hair and lying his face down on the counter. He probably had been casting several illusions to hide their guildhall to make sure it would be undiscoverable by enemies for the past few hours. He mumbled tiredly, "I'm spent."

"Well, I'm spent too, and currently we need more staff. Happy Hour and all." Mars easily shoved an apron towards the lazy boy, knowing that despite working hard, Kei could do much more but rarely was motivated to do so.

"Fine," Kei grumbled, proceeding to take over Mars's position at the counter and allowing for Mars to instead wait on tables. "I sometimes wonder why I did this."

"Ava blackmailed you and Rae sweet talked you, and considering that you're too close to both of them to say no, you ended up here." Mars deadpanned.

"...point taken," Kei allowed.

"Hello everyone!" The doors opened, revealing a beaming and surprisingly bold Ames. The boy quickly realized everyone was staring and blushed. "U-um…Team Three has recovered completely. Some of the other healers got back and so we're good."

From behind him stepped out Riley, Michael, and Iris.

"Raiden joined the S-class mages on their mission," Iris explained, giving them all a bright smile. Miss us?"

Immediately, several of the teammates' best friends rushed up to them.

"Michael, you're okay," Gizma said delightedly, giving him a friendly grin.

"Yep, sorry for worrying you," Michael chuckled, patting her on the head. ("They have a really close brother sister like relationship," Mars explained to May under his breath.)

"You alright now?" Ava peered at Riley, examining her best friend from head to toe to check for any lasting injuries.

"Yep," Riley saluted mockingly, beaming at her friend. "A bit disappointed about not being able to retaliate much, but with my luck I've certainly been through worse."

("They've known each other for a long time, and Riley's basically cursed with extremely bad luck," Mars explained with as few details as he could.)

"Nice to see you're back up on your feet, Iris," Rae grinned, sharing a high five with the pink haired girl. "We got quite a few new members while you were gone."

"Really? Is that so?" Iris asked thoughtfully. "What are their names?"

"Well…" Chase overheard the two and immediately launched into a long tale. "So our team split up during our mission-" cue the glares from Rae, "-and so apparently Alucard and Rae ran into trouble and this guy named Uriah saved them. So we invited him to our guild. He's on the S-Class mission right now. And then apparently Mars met May, who's over there, during one of our missions and so she's now a part of our guild. Cool, right? Our team's really weird."

Iris, however, didn't reply. Instead, she seemed in deep thought. "Uriah…" she muttered under her breath. "It can't be…"

"You okay, Iris?" Michael asked, and when everyone turned to him he awkwardly stumbled over his feet and instead chose to shove his hands in his pockets and stew in embarrassment.

"I'll confirm it later." Iris shook off whatever was bothering her and turned to Mars. "Hand me an apron and I'll help."

"But you're still recovering," Ames protested, his 'healer mode' immediately coming into play once again.

"We're alright," Mars replied, giving Iris a warm smile. "Just go and catch up with everyone. Since Malba City's well aware of our guild's destructive nature whenever 'Happy Hour' starts, there's not that many actual customers. Just us."

"Why did you make _me_ help then?" Kei complained from his spot at the bar counter.

"You're not injured."

"But I'm _tiiiired_ ," Kei emphasized.

"You're just a lazy ass," everyone deadpanned dryly.

"Everyone's so mean…" Kei sulked, returning to his duty reluctantly. Rae, Ava, and Chase snickered at the reaction.

"Sucks to be you," Ava shrugged, her electric blue eyes glinting with slight amusement as she watched her teammate sulk.

"...oi, oi, try to be a little more sympathetic," Kei deadpanned. "I'm your teammate."

"And I'm a girl," Ava replied cheerily. Seeing multiple people's strange looks, she shrugged and said, "I thought we were stating the obvious."

"...oi."

"They're interesting," May observed. "Well...everyone in the guild is pretty interesting."

"Everyone in _our_ guild," Mars corrected. "You're a part of it now too."  
"Ah...guess you're right." May rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, watching with curious and amused eyes as everyone began bickering or talking amongst each other.

 _CRASH._

"Hey...what's…" Standing in the back, Rae, easily identifiable by her green hair, halted in her words. Her face darkened. " _Chase…_ "

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to, don't kill me," Chase pleaded, inching backwards and away from the broken wine bottle. "We love each other very much, Rae, and we're close teammates and everything and sure sometimes I'm annoying but I'm a decent dude and I've saved your ass and you've saved mind so please _please don't hurt me_ -"

"Now, now," Ames tried to awkwardly interject himself between his two teammates. "Rae, I think you're overreacting a bit…"

" _Overreacting?_ " Rae growled dangerously. Ames wisely stepped out of the way.

"You're screwed," Ava noted at the same time as Kei.

"Love you too," Chase muttered, trying his best to look inconspicuous under the bar counter. Glancing at Michael, he said weakly, "Did I ever tell you I like reading mystery novels?"

"I'd try to help, but I doubt it'd do much good," Michael deadpanned.

"That's it. You. Me. Contest, here and now," Rae demanded, hoisting her teammate up to his feet.

"C-contest? What kind of contest?" Chase tried to stall.

"Drinking. What else? It's _Happy Hour_ , and our guild's gonna somehow get drunk one way or another, so let's go at it."  
"Oh, a contest? I'm in, I'm in!" May immediately made her way into the scene, ignoring incredulous looks from the other members.

"Oi, oi, what's with all the commotion?" Grace, who had just entered the bar, groaned. "I just returned from the forest and what do we have here?"

"I believe that there is a competition going on," Victoria said, her eyes staring randomly at the ceiling, probably concocting some kind of idea in the depths of her mind.

"...count me in," Grace said grimly.

"Sounds fun, but with my bad luck, the wine will probably become poisoned or something," Riley laughed awkwardly.

"Guys," Iris tried to placate everyone, but they were all too invested in their own things at the moment.

Chase laughed nervously. "Sounds...fun?"

"Not when I _crush you_ ," Rae growled.

"I like a challenge, I guess. Count me in," Marcus shrugged. Glancing cautiously at the rest of his guildmates, he asked, "There's going to be someone responsible supervising, right?"

"Oh! Oh! I can~!" Ava volunteered herself.

"You just want blackmail material," Marcus vetoed the idea immediately. Glancing at Michael, he asked, "Can you?" He knew that Michael was both responsible but also had a righteous sense of justice, so he'd probably stop them if they went too far. "I get the feeling that halfway through Rae will begin strangling Chase."

Michael looked reluctant at first, but after looking at all of the other possible choices, agreed. Methodically, the pink haired boy rolled up his sleeves and took off his glasses. Grimly pushing back his hair, he said, "Okay. Wish me luck."

"I wonder how the S-Class mages are doing right now," Iris pondered pitifully. She half wished she had at least tried to join that rank now, glancing at the competitive sparks and tense atmosphere in the bar.

* * *

" _Gyahahaha!_ Take that, I won~" May cheered, her cheeks a bright pink. Behind her, everyone else was groaning in pain, the only one looking nearly as unaffected being Rae (which was unsurprising, since she was the bar's owner).

"Can't get drunk, gotta make sure no one blows it up like last time," Rae mumbled woozily, her arms twitching periodically. (Most decided not to question that statement.)

"I can't...believe...I thought that would be...fun," Grace groaned. "I think I'm going to get alcohol poisoning."

"Cheer up, we'll die together," Chase pointed out cheerfully.

"Nah...wanna fight? Huh? Wanna?" Grace slurred at her guildmate, wobbling uncertainly on her feet. Kei and Ava both cautiously grabbed their teammate and sat her back on a bar stool.

Rae tilted her head slightly. "Did Kei always look this attractive?"

"Rae, _bro_ , I'm almost like your big brother," Kei groaned, making sure the girl stayed in her seat.

"Then again, Chase looks pretty cute too," Rae muttered, hugging onto someone.

"...oi, stop hugging onto Michael. He looks like he's about to faint."

"Gonna beat you all and find those bastards," Grace shakily rose to her feet. "I'm gonna find 'em and make them pay."

May was still celebrating, but she quickly froze as she began to feel the alcohol pounding at her head more prominently. Groaning, she slammed her head against the bar counter and stayed there, arms sprawled outwards. Mars checked to make sure she'd live.

"I definitely should've found a way to get on the S-Class team," Iris deadpanned, watching her guildmates' antics. Next to her, the rest of the still sober onlookers nodded.

* * *

Elsewhere, two faces were watching the bar with amused eyes.

One of the figures, clad in black, shifted slightly so that they faced their companions. "They're distracted. Now is the time to strike."

"Now, now, Nightowl, just grumpy because your usual playtoy isn't here?" The bright smile accompanying the comment did not deter from the calculative look on the woman's face.

"We will meet again in due time," Nightowl, as identified, dismissed the comment coolly.

"I heard that some of my dear ol' teammates' acquaintances are in this guild," the woman drawled.

A figure approached the two, sporting a sweet smile. Once spotting her companions, the nice persona immediately dropped as she observed the bar with hungering eyes.

"Ah, that one healer and that Mach Make mage guy?" The figure, a woman with ink colored hair and brown eyes turned towards the second woman. "What were their names again, Corvina?"

"Jack was the Mach Make mage. Heard he took an apprentice for a little while, and now the kiddo's at the guild. What was his name again...Cane? Chise? Something like that. And there's another man in the guild who actually ran into two of my teammates. Erik, our healer, helped out...I believe his name was Alucard. And later I even heard from a run in with Serine that she had sewn an eyepatch for the same guy. Luckily I heard that...Alucard, was it? Well, he's out with the rest of the S-Class mages," Corvina informed, eyes dancing with wicked excitement. "Master says as long as we don't _kill_ them, Marza, we can rough them up a bit."

"This will be fun." A sadistic smirk spread over Marza's face. "They sound pretty annoyingly loud, if I may be blunt."

"Well, then, let's interrupt their fun, shall we?" Corvina proposed, and the two women looked towards Nightowl for the final verdict.

"Wreck chaos," he ordered darkly.

* * *

 **A/N: Woot~ well there's certainly a lot of characters haha, but hopefully once things happen and stuff and everyone splits up again, the characters will really begin to establish more of themselves. What characters do you like to see interact with each other? Which ones seem interesting? Who looks like they'd might get along? etc.**

 **Feel free to share with me all your thoughts. Thanks for reading/reviewing/favorite-ing/following~**


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